We sparked a conversation about what might happen to help every child to thrive, following the election of a government with a mission to “break down barriers to opportunity”.
Thrive at Five’s co-founder, Grant Gordon OBE, reminded us of the challenge we face in transforming outcomes for the youngest in society when 4.2 million children live in poverty, and with the highest rate of poverty found among children aged 0-4.
Anne Longfield CBE, who was speaking ahead of the launch of the ninth report of The Centre for Young Lives, described the effect of poverty, and issues including addiction, domestic violence and poor mental health, on early childhood. The report found:
- In 2022/23, a third of children were not considered school ready, with 45% of children receiving Free School Meals not school ready.
- Over half of children who were not school ready performed below expected in their Key Stage 1 reading assessment.
- Children deemed not school ready at age five are 2.5 times more likely to be persistently absent from school.
Anne reminded us that action in the early years shapes the health, wealth and wellbeing across the life of every child and therefore every adult, the whole of society and the economy;
“Children who are not school ready are three times more likely to be not in education, employment or training when they leave school” [1].
Our speakers reflected on the legacy of Sure Start and the optimistic case it creates for a bold national plan to join up support in the early years. They reflected on the importance of building on that legacy and what we have learned to help us deliver the right support for babies, children and families now.
Our speakers focused on four fundamentals of best practice support for early childhood development today.
1. Recognise the inherent power of parents and the community, and enable them to be the authors of change.
Beverley Barnett-Jones spoke about the importance of professionals and the wider system investing in their relationships with parents and carers. This creates genuine allyship based on trust, respect and a deep understanding and response to individual needs. She also described how their experience of receiving help earlier in their lives might have been humiliating and shameful for some parents, rather than positive, leading them to shy away from offers of support. It is important for professionals to recognise and overcome this barrier.
"We need to be relational, the system needs to be relational, Parents who encounter it have to trust that the professionals have a humility about coming into their lives and the spaces they are living in, and that we come from a place of love and care”.
Sally Hogg observed that the way public services operate, particularly as a result of austerity and changes made since the pandemic, can make it difficult to support the critical relationships between parents, carers and children, and disrupts important relationships between parents and professionals
Thrive at Five’s Pregnancy Lead in Stoke-on-Trent, Nina Gilbert, shared her story about growing up in one of the communities with which Thrive at Five is working. She spoke about Thrive at Five’s Parent Connectors, who reach out and help fellow parents to develop the confidence and skills to navigate the early years support system.
“Lived experience is vital to the role. Understanding the challenging lives that many of our families encounter, but also the tenacity, endurance and love that we see every day. Relationships truly can be the catalyst for change”.
2. Join hands to improve children’s prospects early in childhood rather than dealing with problems that a lack of early action causes later in life
The speakers were united in talking about how science and experience shows the power of joined up approaches within the public sector, and between the public sector and the voluntary and community sector. Sarah Cattan emphasised the increasing importance of also joining forces with providers of early education and childcare.
Sally explained how essential it is that we agree on what we want to achieve for children in their early years and use evidence to identify the best way of achieving this change together. She pointed out that it is far more efficient and effective to invest in avoiding problems than focussing on fixing problems later in life. “If we think about teenagers and their attendance and behaviour at school, it might be very easy to think we need to get schools to do something different. But mostly we need teenagers who feel a sense of belonging and can stay at school by getting the early years right. Teenagers that have got the language, social and emotional skills, and executive function to thrive”.
3. We need a national plan for early childhood with strong local leadership driving place-based plans
We were invited by Simon Day not to lose sight of great things that are happening in some places, and he reflected on the difference that great local leadership makes. Sally highlighted that the drive for evidenced-based practice, while positive, has often turned into a desire to find and apply a single approach which works everywhere. She pointed out that randomised control trials only identify that something worked in specific times and places, and we cannot always just ‘lift and shift’ to other areas and achieve the same results. We must use evidence wisely, and know our communities, systems and children in each place, through building trusting relationships and listening to what parents want and need. Government can support local organisations and professionals to do this.
"It’s not about saying we need exactly these things that exist somewhere else, it’s about saying how do we create the environment, the funding, the levers, the incentives, and the relationships that allow systems to work well and respond to parents in a place, just as Thrive at Five is doing in Stoke-on-Trent and Redcar & Cleveland”.
4. Local “backbone” organisations can provide essential capacity for joined-up and effective working
Sally talked about the need for systems change and the challenge for the public sector to deliver change when many professionals are “exhausted”. She talked about Local Authorities benefiting from the additional support provided by ‘backbone’ organisations in this context. Simon described the convening of partners as part of the essential role of Local Authorities and that partnerships need to include schools, early childcare and education providers, health and the voluntary and community sector. He too sees a role for backbone organisations based in local communities, particularly where trust in the system is broken.
“In Stoke, the Chief Executive has talked openly about his personal commitment to the early years. The leadership which comes from Local Authorities can be really powerful. But it’s OK for not everyone to have to work for the Local Authority to bring in that capacity and that set of skills to support locally. That’s what you get from having Thrive at Five as a backbone team supporting and working with a Local Authority”.
The call for action. Act now
There is a clear sense of opportunity but also urgency for action. Simon highlighted the Government’s ambition for 500,000 more children to achieve a Good Level of Development by 2030, which includes any baby born between now and July 2025. To hit a goal that ambitious, action is needed now.
"The kind of conversations happening have not been heard for a while, either in the frequency nor the level of enthusiasm."
Work together to shape a national model for early years support
The potential to look afresh at the Sure Start model was discussed with a consensus that the spirit and ethos of Sure Start needs to be adapted to a changed landscape. Sarah described a Nesta project with the Ethos Foundation, ’A new era of integration in the early years’, and invited collaboration to define a long-term vision for joined-up family support services, and the optimal design and governance of such a system
Invest for long term change and in innovation to transform the system
Sally also highlighted the role that philanthropists can play in supporting the generation of longer-term evidence and interventions where impact may not be seen for 10 – 15 years. Private funding can invest in more innovative approaches where the risks are higher and returns are not seen within electoral and public sector financial cycles.
"System change is needed, and innovation is needed, and the system is too stressed to do that itself, which is why backbone organisations like Thrive at Five are important. Think about how you can help answer questions about how public services can work better in low resource environments.”
Optimism for the early years
The combination of close to 30 years of evidence-based practice and private and public focus is creating a powerful sense of optimism for progress on early childhood development.
Thrive at Five will continue to grow our role in contributing to this knowledge by sharing our experience as a backbone organisation, delivering sustained change with communities through partnerships of connected and strengthened local services, public and private orgnanisations and professionals. And we will continue to champion and help unlock the power of parents and carers to provide the nurturing care their children need. As Beverley said, “Ultimately parents and carers need to be the drivers because that is how change will be sustained over the generations”.
[1] New school starters in England not ready for learning, says report (phys.org)