Nursery World - Poverty review head calls for revamp of early years

The early years should be re-named the Foundation Years, as part of a plan to reform education policy and target support for children from before birth to age five, according to the Labour MP who has been commissioned by David Cameron to investigate the way poverty is defined and how to tackle it.

In a progress report on the Independent Review of Poverty and Life Chances, given to the Prime Minister last week, Frank Field, the former welfare minister, outlined his idea for 'a new index of life opportunities'. He proposed this to be used to measure whether children have achieved the basic levels of development for a five-year-old and the home characteristics necessary to succeed in school and then later life.

The index would be based on social and emotional development, cognitive and language skills, communication skills and well-being - indicators that evidence has showed make the most difference to future life opportunities.

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