Under the Early Support pilot programme, which is to be piloted in ten to 15 sites across the country, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) will be working alongside the Department of Health, the National Children's Bureau (NCB) and the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), as well as service providers and other organisations, to offer help and practical assistance to young disabled children and their parents.
The range of intervention provided by the programme will include early identification and support to help children's language development; better information to parents so they know of the range of services available and what those services should be delivering; better inter-agency working so children get a co-ordinated service; better support for parents when their child is identified as having a special need and how that is conveyed to them to minimise anxiety; and developing the role of key workers so parents have a single point of contact.
Early years minister Catherine Ashton said, 'Positive co-ordinated support from an early age can transform a child's life. Early intervention tackles the causes of disadvantage at the outset of a child's life, giving a sound foundation for subsequent support for both child and family.'
RNID chief executive James Strachan described the initiative as 'a brilliant example of how central government can work in partnership with the voluntary sector, service users and service providers to improve the lives of children and their families'.
He added that the pilot was timely, given that babies in England are starting to be tested for deafness soon after birth under the Health Newborn Hearing Screening Programme.
This will effectively lower the average age of identification of deafness from 20 months to three months.
