15th November 2018
Following the collation of evidence for their Evidence-based early-years intervention inquiry , the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has published their report and is calling on the Government to draw up a new national strategy for early intervention approaches to address childhood adversity and trauma.
The Evidence-based early years intervention Report urges the Government to capitalise fully on the opportunity that early intervention provides to transform the lives of those who suffer adversity in childhood, while also saving long-term costs to Government.
This is a very important and hugely interesting report which includes the call for secure funding for early interventions and also cites the Institute in one of the recommendations:
Recommendation 9.
The Healthy Child Programme is the only mechanism in place through which all children in England should receive early years practitioner support before the age of five. Its coverage is therefore critical for identifying ACEs and other child development issues early. The Government should review the current provision of the
Healthy Child Programme across England and set out, as part of the new national strategy, a date for achieving complete coverage in the number of children who receive all five mandated health visits. Given existing workforce pressures, the Government must ensure that this required increase in coverage does not negatively impact the quality of health visits. It should consult the Institute of Health Visiting on how this can be managed, and be ready to recruit additional health visitors as required.
(Paragraph 54)
The Committee’s Report identifies examples of early intervention working well around the country, but also the challenges that local authorities and their partners currently face in delivering effective, evidence-based early intervention. It concludes that the overall provision of early intervention in England is fragmented, with varying levels of support, focus on evidence, and success.
The Committee calls for a new national strategy to be drawn up to ensure that the opportunity provided by early intervention—to transform lives and save long-term costs to Government—is seized fully, and by all local authorities in England.
