Research and policy
Policy: The Children's Plan: Building Brighter Futures
1 Dec 2007
Five principles underpin the Children's Plan including:
- Government does not bring up children, parents do, so Government needs to do more to back parents and families.
- All children have the potential to succeed and should go as far as their talents can take them.
- Children and young people need to enjoy their childhood as well as grow up prepared for adult life.
1.57 10-year vision for children's health: young children thrive in the first years of life with more tailored support for parents and parenting and better early support for individual needs.
1.60 New research into brain development, attachment and the impact of stress in pregnancy confirms our view that pregnancy and the first years of life are the most important formative stage. Good health in this stage and services that work with parents, are critically important. DCSF and DH will work together to secure improvements in health, well-being and child development in pregnancy, infancy and the first years of life.
1.63 The early years are an important time to establish good habits of eating and active play.
1.71 Good social and emotional skills are vital for health personal development. They build resilience and reduce the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviour, and support educational achievement, employment and earnings, and relationships in adulthood.
1.72 We want all children to develop strong social and emotional skills from the early years on.
3.11 World class early childhood services enable young children to have the best start in life so they can take full advantage of later opportunities to learn and develop. Therefore, the Government's ambition is that every child by age five will be developing well and ready to start their next phase of learning, having the confidence and communication skills to access the primary curriculum. Our 2020 goal is that every child will be ready for success in school with at least 90% developing well across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile by age five. This will require us to build on the creation of a universal early years system, with a fresh impetus on improving quality, supporting parents and providing help earlier to those who need it most.
3.15 Reinforcing our commitment that no child is left behind, statutory early years targets have been introduced for local authorities to improve more rapidly the levels of achievement of young children most at risk of falling into the lowest group. The targets for 2011 will ensure that expected progress is maintained for all children and young people, including those who have previously fallen behind the most able measured by:
- the achievement gap between the lowest achieving 20% of children and the rest at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
3.16 Working with parents will be vital at each stage of children's development.
3.18 The Bercow Review into the provision of services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs was launched in September 2007. The Review will consider improving information to parents to help identify issues early and encourage them to seek support, improve the skills of the early years and school workforce, promote better partnership working between health and local authority services and ensure clear accountability in all services. In spring 2008 it will publish its interim report, reflecting the outcomes of its consultation, with a final report in summer 2008.
3.3 Personalised teaching and learning. The distinctive feature of the pedagogy of personalisation is the way it expects all pupils to reach or exceed expectations, fulfil early promise and develop latent potential.
Key features include:
Talking to learn: Pupils are challenged to justify their answers by explaining their thinking.
4.22 To gain the benefits of early years education, practitioners need to be working at the cutting edge of practice. We want to see early years practitioners and teachers securing core qualifications and continuously updating their skills and knowledge.
4.50 Sharing of expertise between schools Sure Start Children's Centres, early years and childcare providers and the health service helps improve the lives of young people and their families by creating a higher quality, more seamless service designed around their needs.
We therefore propose to invest £10m over three years to identify best practice and test new partnership models at locality level, piloting 0-7 partnerships in a small number of areas. 0-7 partnerships will operate within the Children's Trust and promote continuity for children and families from birth through to age 7. They will support stronger engagement with parents, identified as a key issue by the 0-7 Expert Group. We will work with a range of stakeholders to develop the pilots.
7.13 Making a reality of the vision for our children set out in the Children's Plan depends on parents, the community, statutory services, the voluntary sector and business working together to provide opportunities, tackle problems and transform the environment in which children grow up.
(The Children's Plan, Building brighter futures, December 2007)
For more information visit www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/childrensplan/.
