Literacy news
David Cameron and Frank Field discuss early years at Demos launch event
11 Jan 2010
During the launch Cameron set out his plans for the Sure Start scheme citing the importance of “early intervention increasing its focus on those who need its help most”. He described how Sure Start children’s centre would move away from providing universal services for all parents with young children and focus on the most disadvantaged and ‘dysfunctional’ families, with pay being allocated to staff partly based on results.
He also said that politicians should play a role in helping develop parenting skills to try to build a “responsible society”. Supporting recent research by Demos, he described how what mattered most to a child’s life chances was “not the wealth of their upbringing but the warmth of their parenting”. As a result, it was important that the “right structures” were in place to build “strong and secure” families.
Speaking at the same event, Frank Field gave emphasis to the teaching of good parenting in schools. He described how Good parents can affect our life chances whether we come from rich or poor homes. Good outcomes at school can cut the supply routes to life-long poverty. We should therefore judge how pre and post-natal services, Sure Start, as well as schools are achieving that objective.
More information on the launch can be found on the Demos website.
(Various, including Nursery World, Times, BBC News, 11 January 2010)
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