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Early Start was a family programme developed by the Basic Skills
Agency and bringing together education, health and care services.
It aimed to tackle social exclusion early on by supporting
families with children aged 0-3, where parents or carers had
few or no qualifications and lived in the most socially and
economically disadvantaged communities. Early Start focused
on communication, language, literacy and mathematical understanding
in the early years. It also encouraged parents and carers
to improve their own skills so that they were better able to
support their children, providing information on literacy
and numeracy qualifications and progression to further learning
opportunities.
Programmes ran for 30-40 hours with up to nine families. There
were separate and joint sessions for parents and children,
and parents were shown activities which they could do with their
children at home. The three separate stages of Early Start
were Baby Talk - the first year; Small Talk - the second year;
and Talk Together - the third year.
All three stages of the programme were developed, on the basis
of evidence, within Sure Start groups, Early Excellence Centres
and pre-school groups, with funding from Learning and Skills
Councils. Each programme was required to evaluate itself. The
Basic Skills Agency also commissioned an evaluation report
to assess the outcomes and impact of Early Start on parents,
children and communities.
The Early Start programme was incorporated in the Step in to Learning programme, which was taken on by CTAD and is now part of the work of Tribal. More information on Step in to Learning is available at www.surestart.gov.uk/stepintolearning/
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