Opinion: To the point - Evidencing families
Dr Katherine Rake, OBE
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
I took up the new challenge at FPI because I'm passionate about improving families' lives. My vision for FPI is to promote the well-being of families, which is so intertwined with the well-being of society.
It's an exciting yet challenging time to join such a well-respectedorganisation. The political landscape is likely to change dramaticallyin the next year and the sector will be facing tough financial times.But it is essential that we continue to build on early years initiativesand avoid losing the expertise built up over the past ten years andwhich is starting to make a real difference to families.
We know from Sure Start children's centres the value of earlyintervention in children's lives. Last month, I visited a centre in adeprived part of Birmingham. It was offering childcare and learningthrough play. It was encouraging pregnant women and their partners tovisit a midwife at the centre and then attend drop-ins after theirbaby's birth. A voluntary organisation, Malachi, funded through FPI'sParenting Fund, was counselling parents with problems at home. And otherparents were coming in to study for GCSEs.
We will have to continue to make the case that such early years work isnot an extravagance only affordable in the good times, but that it savesmoney in the long term by preventing problems before they escalate intocrises. It takes hard evidence to prove this.
I hope that we at the FPI and you can gather this evidence together. Fora decade, we have argued the case for parents' involvement in theirchildren's earliest education and for the key role that nursery workersplay in helping them do so. Now, as part of a Government researchproject, we are interviewing hundreds of parents and early years workersacross the country to really look at what the effect is.
On Monday, 30 November, I will be giving my first keynote speech atFPI's tenth anniversary conference. I will set out my vision forfamilies and parents in 2020. I hope that as we go forward I will beable to work with you on the front line to make sure that we keep ondoing all we can to promote the well-being of families.
- Dr Katherine Rake OBE, last month started as chief executive of theFamily and Parenting Institute.
