The first five years of a person’s life are key to their prospects. It is essential that every child has a good start in life, and that means giving families the best support they can possibly receive.
Continuing with necessary improvements to early years education is crucial for parents, for providers and, most importantly of all, for the children. While the Government has committed to spending over £3.6 billion a year helping families with childcare support, there is still more to do to ensure no family gets left behind.
One thing we should look at is removing barriers to progression for Early Years Teachers in order to encourage the recruitment and retention of a skilled workforce. One solution could be a BEd/PGCE, specifically for early years to include much in the way of child psychology and child development, as well as the specialist teaching aspects required for smaller children.
The home-learning environment is another important factor in the development of early speech, language and communication. Parents play such an important role in their children’s education while at home, in daily interactions as a family. But there are capability (lack of understanding of the importance of early development), opportunity (financial and physical constraints) and motivational barriers that can stop these parents from fulfilling their full potential.
We can do more in this area through more targeted help for families to emphasise the importance of daily interactions with their baby/child. This can be through integrating simple messages about the ease and importance of chat, play and reading on everyday products and services around daily routines, and targeted campaigns such as the Government’s Hungry Little Minds to address capability and opportunity barriers.
We can also target interventions and campaign activity in particular communities to increase the support for parents already engaging with early years support organisations, while using these organisations and volunteers to reach out to those who are not engaging.
Motivational barriers, as an intangible factor, can be some of the most difficult to overcome. But by focusing strongly on play and positive messages for families who may be less motivated by an attainment message, using both celebrities and local champions to role-model and normalise behaviours in the community, and working with partners to role-model positive behaviours in everyday situations, such as frontline retail staff supporting parent/child communication, we can achieve progress in overcoming these issues.
It is clear that the early years experience for our children is crucial, and I am pleased to be able to shine a spotlight on it. By working in all aspects of the child’s life during this important time in development, I am hopeful that we can achieve a lasting positive change for a whole generation of our young people.
