NLT policy

Early Years and the Spending Review: “the when, what and how?”

4 Nov 2010

On 8 October 2010 the National Literacy Trust hosted a policy breakfast led by Jean Gross, the Government’s Communication Champion. The discussion focused on the challenge for the early years sector in the age of austerity, as well as the opportunities provided by the current climate.

The event was attended by representatives from local authorities, think tanks and major charities.

The sky is falling in!

One of the key themes to emerge from the discussion was that the threat of cuts and the media speculation over which services would suffer the most has created the impression that all support and services will end in April. The attendees felt it was important that those working in the early years were able to look beyond 1 April with some confidence.

While nobody in the room doubted there are difficult decisions ahead, there was a sense that allowing the fear of cuts to paralyse some of the excellent work being done across the country could only serve to make the problem worse. Now is a crucial time for showing the value of early years work.

When: Earlier

The window of minus nine months to two-years-old was mentioned as the key window for brain development and success with interventions. While it was stressed that services for children aged three to five-years-old should not be ignored, much of the discussion focused on the growing evidence that the key time for support work was during pregnancy and in the first two years of a baby’s life.

There are existing examples of best practice within local authorities, schemes such as “talk to your bump and beyond”, and many attendees spoke warmly of the impact of Every Child A Talker in various locations across the country, but many in the room believed that an increased focus on the earliest years is necessary.

One of the key challenges for any work with families, particularly those with children in the earliest years, is building trust with parents and ensuring that the programme seems more of a partnership than an intervention. One attendee spoke of the experiences of one project which found at least six visits were needed before parents began to trust the worker and start believing in partnership.

The importance of attachment in the early years was spoken about as pivotal to the success of work in the very early years. However, caution was signalled that those working in children’s centres and other service providers must be aware of the different needs of different children and likewise difference in approaches to parenting, and must ensure that we do not end up promoting a single “state sponsored” form of attachment.

What: Language, communication and the new order

An inevitable corollary of the group discussion on how the “sun will rise on 1 April” was what the early years sector may look like in the coming years.  There was agreement that language and communication work are key to providing the best opportunities for every child to succeed, so discussion focused largely on how these skills could be supported in the first years of life.

Stoke Speaks Out was referenced as a highly successful project that has managed to reduce the percentage of three-year-olds in Stoke with delayed speech and language from 68% to 48%. While these impressive results have required a relatively large amount of capital funding, a similar scheme is currently underway in Leicester, which has been launched with just £35,000. Learning from existing projects such as these is crucial to planning for the future of the early years sector.

There are currently a number of ongoing reviews which will impact on the future of early years. Frank Field MP and Graham Allen MP are carrying out reviews on poverty and early intervention respectively, while a major review of the Early Years Foundation Stage is underway. The general consensus among attendees was that the review will not, and certainly should not, be the end of the framework. However, fears were voiced that the review might single out certain strands, and perhaps weight some areas more heavily than others. In this context it is essential that advocacy for early years language and communication is strongly represented in the review.

Children’s centres and specifically Sure Start centres were also the topic of debate. There was a general fear among many that some of the excellent work that Sure Start centres do will be lost as they are vulnerable in the cuts. There was a degree of disagreement over whether Sure Start centres should be returned to their original purpose, particularly in a time of economic difficulty, or continue as a universal service to avoid the constant change creating uncertainty.

Within the context of the ongoing reviews there was a short discussion about hopes more generally for the future direction of early years policy. One attendee stated that all the “quick fixes” in policy terms had been achieved and that the ongoing reviews had a golden opportunity to lay the foundations for long-term policy planning. The National Year of Communication (recently launched with the “Hello” logo) will take a bottom up approach to improvement, by being targeted at local service providers rather than national government.

This bottom up approach to support was mentioned as vital to the future of early years policy, as one of the coalition government’s key principles is to give local authorities and practitioners freedom from national targets. As one attendee put it, “why pitch something at a national level, when the government doesn’t produce national policy?”. This clearly presents a number of new challenges for those working to promote early years, and how we rise to these challenges was the third key area discussed.

How: Success in the new order

One of the key issues for the early years sector is that different stages from birth to four fall under the remit of different government departments. For instance, from minus nine months to two is covered by the Department for Health, whereas key areas of age two to four are covered by the Department for Education. The Department for Communities and Local Government also has an impact on the delivery of many local priorities, which can further complicate areas.

Despite the obvious challenges this medley of central government control can cause, many present believed that the current reviews and more generally the shift in policy direction provide a unique opportunity for advocacy work and that the coming months are a critical time for all sectors, including the early years. There was a strong sense among attendees that to ensure the best possible outcomes for all children, the issue had to be depoliticised. If different areas of early years support are seen as the intellectual property of one party or political persuasion, this will have damaging effects on the funding of services, and ultimately the outcomes, for those at whom services are aimed.

A clear example of this is the Early Years Foundation Stage, which has attracted some negative publicity as typical of the “tick box culture” which pervaded New Labour’s education policy. The impact of the framework on practitioners and the consistency it provided for young children is often ignored in this debate and there is a danger that the framework becomes an all or nothing solution, whereby you either continue with it as it is now, or scrap the entire framework. In this context advocacy during the current review is essential.

Linked to this, some attendees mentioned the professionalisation of the workforce, or more precisely the lack of policy direction in this area from the new government. More than one attendee said that workforce development is a must and that it is worrying that there has been no word on the move to have a graduate leader in every setting, or other professionalisation agendas.

While the discussion focused on localism and the presumed reduction in national policy direction, some attendees were keen to point out that this should also be linked to a personalisation agenda. While research highlights the importance of attachment and other key early years practice, there is a responsibility on the part of agencies and practitioners to understand that there is a plurality of parenting methods and to ensure that we do not risk alienating parents.

Conclusion

The discussion at the event was both fascinating and wide ranging and two clear themes in particular emerged. The first is that there are a huge number of dedicated and talented individuals and organisations working across the country to improve the chances of every child. This was demonstrated in the examples of best practice given, and was one of the main reasons for optimism, even with the spending restrictions. The second was that the next six months, while a time of challenge and great change, are also a time of unique opportunity for those who work with and care about outcomes in the early years. Strong advocacy, both participation in ongoing reviews and locally to health and education services, can help to ensure that early years outcomes are well represented in future plans and strategies, both locally and nationally.

There were suggestions that a re-convening of the group at the start of the next financial year would be useful as attendees would have a better sense of government policy direction, and people would be able to effectively report back on developments in their specific fields.

The National Literacy Trust would like to thank Starbucks and the staff at their South Molton Street store for their kind support and help at this event.

Tags: Early Years, Early years sector, England, Partners in Literacy, TTYB policy, Talk To Your Baby

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