Literacy news
National Literacy Trust welcomes release of Graham Allen MP review of early intervention
19 Jan 2011
Nottingham North MP Graham Allen has released the interim findings of his review of early intervention. Entitled "Early Intervention: the next steps" the report calls for 15 "local early intervention places" to be set up to spearhead the development of best practice.
The recommendations in the report call for the extension of existing successful early years programmes such as the Family Nurse Partnership, which highlight the critical importance of early intervention in ensuring good speech, language and communication development.
To assist with this the report calls for the creation of a national parenting programme for the UK and says pre-school years - birth to five, including pregnancy - should be given the same recognition developmentally as the primary and secondary years of education.
Mr Allen says this could be partly achieved by numbering all the year groups from birth, not just from the start of primary school which starts with the Reception year.
The prime objective of this should be "to produce high levels of 'school readiness' for all children, regardless of income," the MP says. He continues:
"It is important that everyone with responsibilities for child development, particularly parents, understands how the 0 to 18 health and educational cycle is continuous from birth and does not start on entry to primary school."
The National Literacy Trust has campaigned for better awareness of the vital importance of early language development and is pleased to see the emphasis the report places on this area.
Mr Allen is due to publish a second report before the summer parliamentary recess detailing how private sector money can fund proven early intervention programmes.
Download the full report
Read about the findings on the BBC website
Read about the report at Children and Young People Now
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