News
Making sense of early intervention: report by Centre for Social Justice
6 Sep 2011
Making sense of early intervention: a framework for professionals
This report draws together findings from the plethora of reviews into early intervention, early years and prevention and highlights key principles for professionals to consider. Early language and literacy continue to be highlighted in national reviews and research as vital factors in addressing early intervention and child poverty, yet our work with local authorities shows they are rarely considered in strategic planning.
The Centre for Social Justice identifies the following elements and the report explores each in turn:
- A commitment to prevention
- Priority focus on early years
- Continuing early intervention in later years
- A multi-agency systems approach
- High quality workforce
- Investment in programmes that work
These elements are reflected in our work with local authorities - supporting them to develop multi-agency planning for literacy which addresses low literacy as a root cause of issues including child poverty and worklessness. This often involves reviewing local and national good practice and research and can lead to jointly agreed outcomes on areas such as workforce development. In some localities this has manifested as a focus on supporting the Early Years workforce to increase expertise on parental engagement. In other areas literacy awareness training has been offered to partners including housing and child poverty workers helping them to play a role in addressing low literacy.
A review of our work with local authorities is available online here.
And examples of a partnership approach to addressing low literacy will be shared at our conference Breaking the Cycle: literacy, aspirations and the home taking place on 11th October.
The full report by the Centre for Social Justice is online here.
