Following the committee’s two-month inquiry into the long-term impact of the pandemic on parents and families, it said that it had heard ‘concerning evidence’ about the impact of over a year of lockdowns and social distancing on pre-school children.
This ranged from children’s opportunities to learn to crawl and walk being hampered by lack of space in inappropriate housing, to their social and emotional skills being underdeveloped as a result of lack of contact with other children and adults.
Despite this, members of the committee said that there has been ‘no equivalent’ of the extra funding that has been made available to enable school-aged children to ‘catch up’ on lost learning.
The letter, from committee chair Baroness Martha Lane-Fox of Soho to children and families minister Vicky Ford, said, ‘Young children’s physical, emotional and social development will almost inevitably have suffered from the lack of contact they have had with the outside world for a significant proportion of their lives; without action to address this, this could have a whole range of consequences for them and for society as a whole in the years ahead.
‘The Government should make the same commitment to helping the youngest children recover from the pandemic as they have for school-aged children. This should include providing the significant additional resource that early years providers will require to respond to the additional and more complex needs of those in their care.’
Early development
A recent survey by the Early Years Alliance found that 59 per cent of providers reported a decrease in the number of children ‘meeting the expected level of early attainment in physical development, communication and language development, and personal, social and emotional development’.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said, ‘We know that the first five years of a child’s life are absolutely critical to their long-term development – and yet, even with the recent increase, the proportion of so-called "catch-up" funding allocated to the early years sector is less than 5 per cent of the overall pot.
‘We cannot underestimate the effect of the last 15 months on young children. Our own research shows that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the early learning of many under-fives, and in particular, their personal, social and emotional development.
‘Early years providers are doing an excellent job in meeting the needs of the children in their care, but they themselves need adequate support to do so. The Government must stop treating our vital sector as an afterthought and instead, put early years at the very heart of its education recovery programme.’
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, ‘These are really important questions raised by the select committee. A child’s early years are crucial for their development and life chances – any education recovery plans must start from their early years in order to succeed. Every pound invested in their pre-school years pays dividends later on.
‘Childcare providers and their dedicated professionals have worked so hard throughout the pandemic to support children and their families. They are struggling to remain sustainable with low occupancy rates and infections are on the rise again in many areas, meaning rooms may have to close again temporarily. And some nurseries cannot recruit qualified staff.
‘MPs found earlier this year that 89 per cent of parents believed early years were underfunded. The Government needs to invest more in early years and make sure that investment is following the child all the way to their provider.'
Babies and new parents
The committee is also calling on the Government to take steps to ‘mitigate’ the potential long-term impact of the pandemic on babies and their parents.
Expectant parents have missed out on ante-natal classes; some mothers have given birth alone, and many new parents have been unable to access the formal and informal support they would have expected in the days, weeks and months following the birth of their child.
Given the critical importance of the first two years of a child’s life to their long-term health and wellbeing, the committee said, ‘We cannot wait until the effects of the last 15 months are established before taking action.’
Plans should include ‘catch-up’ health visitor appointments; additional funding for services that support new parents and a system that monitors the impact of the pandemic on the emotional, social and physical development of babies born since the start of the pandemic.
Commenting, Mr Leitch said, ‘We know that many parents of babies born during or shortly before the onset of the pandemic have felt completely forgotten by Government. As such, it is vital that government ensures that those families have access to the support they need, as recommended by the Committee.
‘This should not only mean ensuring the availability of critical services such as health visiting, but also remembering the important role that parent and toddler groups offer in those early months and years, not only providing a welcome opportunity for parents to meet and get to know other parents, but also delivering crucial opportunities for young children to play, learn and socialise.
‘We know that many of our parent and toddler group members have struggled to remain viable during the pandemic, and so we hope that the Government’s new focus on the provision of services for the under-twos will include much-needed support for this vital sector.’
Safeguarding
There were 285 reports of child deaths and incidents of serious harm between April and September 2020, a rise of more than a quarter on the same period a year before, the letter cites.
The charity School-Home Support reported a 750 per cent increase in the number of children who needed to be referred to social services between March and May last year, compared to the same period the year before.
The committee said that it was ‘not convinced’ that Local Authority Children’s Services, or third sector organisations have the resources required to respond to this increase in need.
It calls on the Government to work with local authorities to identify and provide the additional funding for Children’s Services that will be required as a result of the pandemic, both in the next 12 months and in the next two to five years.
The parents of disabled children that the committee heard from said they felt abandoned during the pandemic, with damaging consequences on their own wellbeing and their children’s wellbeing.
In addition to providing any extra resources that may be needed to enable health and social care services to catch up on the backlog of missed appointments as a result of the pandemic, the Government should ‘review its approach to service provision’, the letter states.
This could involve classing services for disabled children as ‘essential’ in order to prevent the levels of disruption that have occurred over the last 15 months, should further periods of social distancing be required in future.
