Positive Early Childhood Education (PECE) – trial

What is the Positive Early Childhood Education (PECE) Programme?

The Positive Early Childhood Education (PECE) programme is an early years setting approach which consists of an online professional learning programme for early years educators working with 3 – 4 year olds and PECE Coach Training for setting managers, to support the educators with making improvements to how they respond, interact with, and create environments to support children’s self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. positive behaviour and prosocial skills.

PECE online provides educators with 22 practical strategies for interacting with children and creating positive learning environments. These include modelling self-regulatory behaviours, and improving how educators talk, listen, and give attention to children.

Who is leading this project?

This project is led by Triple P UK, part of the wider Triple P Group who operate internationally. Triple P UK will work with participating settings to deliver the PECE programme, an adaptation of the University of Queensland’s Positive Parenting Programme®.

What will this project look like in your setting?

If allocated to the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. , settings will take part in two core components to the programme. The first is PECE coach training for the setting managers (this involves two full days of remote training, followed a month later by 1.5 days for a pre-accreditation workshop and an accreditation session).

The second component focuses on educator training and the implementation of strategies in the classroom. Up to 10 educators working with 3 – 4‑year-olds will complete four 1‑hour self-paced online training modules. The PECE coach will also complete the online programme and then support their educators to embed the self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. strategies in their practice, through 2 – 4 observation sessions and structured feedback.

Settings allocated to the control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution. will continue with business as usual and will not receive the programme during the trial to act as a comparison group. Both intervention and control schools will be asked to complete some evaluation requirements during the project. Exact evaluation requirements will be set out in the information materials if you express an interest in this project.

Participation in the trial is free. Control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution. settings will receive £1,400 and intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. settings will receive £400 for completing evaluation activities, as well as contributions towards staff release costs. All settings will also receive a £50 voucher for completing paper questionnaires about children’s behaviour.

To support delivery of the programme, intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. settings will receive a contribution towards the cost of staff release as follows: A total of 7 hours per educator (£7.50 per hour) for completion of the online programme and practice sessions. A total of 3.5 days per setting manager / PECE coach (£60 per day) for completion of PECE coach accreditation.

For more information about the evaluation incentives and contributions towards staff release costs, please see the setting information sheet.

Who can take part?

Nursery setting criteria:

• Maintained, school-based or PVI nurseries across England.
• Have at least 16 children aged 3 – 4 who attend at least 10 hours per week from September 2026.
• Have not committed to taking part in another EEF trial with 3 – 4‑year-olds during the same year (excluding the Maths Champions Scale-up programme that EEF is supporting).
• Settings have not already delivered the PECE programme within the last 5 years or currently offer a Triple P programme to parents in their setting.
• Settings must have one Nursery Manager/​Lead Educator able take on the PECE Coach role, including attending all training and accreditation sessions and facilitate regular coaching sessions with educators in their setting.

Children selection criteria:

• All children aged 3 – 4 years old in the setting can potentially benefit from exposure to the programme. However, for larger settings, a maximum of 25 eligible children will be randomly selected to participate in the evaluation activities to help make data collection more manageable.

How can you register your interest?

Complete the short form at the bottom of this page.

Self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. is a policy and practice priority as it is a crucial aspect of children’s development across many areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Profile. The EEF’s Early Years Evidence Store highlights that professional development for early years educators can improve disadvantaged children’s self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. skills. This includes components featured in the PECE programme, such as coaching approaches and support for creating a calm, organised learning environment. The underpinning strategies and approaches behind PECE draw on those within the Positive Parenting Programme, which has been extensively evaluated with positive short-term and long-term effects found for children’s social, emotional, and behavioural outcomes.

In 2022, the Nuffield Foundation funded a small feasibility evaluation of the PECE programme led by the University of Sheffield. The evaluation found that the programme was acceptable to both private, voluntary, and independent (PVI) and maintained settings. The evaluators recommended that PECE would benefit from a further robust impact evaluation at scale.

This project will be evaluated by NatCen through a cluster randomised controlled trialAn RCT is used evaluate an educational programme by assigning settings to one of two groups: the intervention group, who receive the programme or the control group, who continue with business as usual. This ensures that any differences in outcomes can be confidently attributed to the programme, providing a robust estimate of the impact and contributing to the evidence for what works in improving educational outcomes.. This trial will assess the impact of the PECE programme on children’s self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances., as reported by educators, as the primary outcome. The evaluation will also examine changes at the practitioner level, and the long-term impact of the programme on children by using data from the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile in their Reception year.

Settings have a 50% chance of being allocated to the intervention groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the intervention group will receive the programme being tested. (receiving the PECE programme). Settings in the control groupAs part of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT), settings will be randomised into either the intervention or control group. Settings in the control group continue with their usual practices and help provide a comparison to measure the intervention’s impact. They are usually offered a monetary compensation as thanks for their contribution. will continue with business as usual and will not receive the programme.

An implementation and process evaluationAn IPE is used to understand how and why an intervention has (or has not) been successful. Data is analysed to explore programme quality, reach, adaptation and differentiation, as well as setting fidelity and responsiveness to the trial design. will be conducted alongside the impact evaluation to explore how settings deliver PECE, the quality and fidelity of delivery and the perception of the programme among educators. It will also examine the perceived impact on children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.