Beverley Hughes
Beverley Hughes MP, Minister for Children and youth justice
I truly am delighted to be here in every way. Delighted still to be doing the job and particularly delighted to have the chance of speaking at your conference.
I believe the Pre-school Learning Alliance makes an absolutely invaluable contribution to the lives of children and their parents, and I am also very pleased to have the opportunity to acknowledge this in person here today.
I think there is a growing awareness across all parts of society about the importance of what happens in the first five years of a child’s life. Children don’t, and never have, just turned up as complete packages on schools’ doorsteps at the age of five, have they? Because what happens before that much anticipated first day is hugely important and in the longer term arguably has the bigger impact than anything that happens to them in the classroom later on. So getting things right for children and their parents in the earliest years is absolutely vital if we are really serious about ECM about tackling inequality, and about making sure that every child has the chance they deserve to be the best they can.
Some of you may have been following in the media this week the focus on social mobility. I don’t believe that there are any parents who don’t want to see their children standing on their shoulders achieving better things than they did. But there is growing concern that for a small but significant minority of families this simply isn’t happening now. I think rightly we all want a society in which it is easier for those who start off poor or disadvantaged to move beyond to move beyond their background and grow up to be happy and successful. I know from my own personal experience how important that is. This is something that all parents want for their children, I believe, and it should be the prime motivation of a progressive society, a progressive government. It isn’t just about what happens in schools or colleges or universities. If we can’t work with parents to get those first 5 years right, then however good our schools are, however inspiring our teachers and lecturers, those who start off at birth at a disadvantage are very unlikely to catch up with their better off peers.
Perhaps even more damningly, we know from research that brighter kids from poorer families are soon overtaken after 22 months in primary schools by their less able but more affluent peers. So the job for all of us, I think, who work with children and families is to make sure that wherever children start out in life, they get the chances they deserve to be happy and successful, and to fulfill their potential. And above all, it should be about effort and talent that determine how well they do, not their start in life, not who their parents are, or the particular borough or area that they are born in.
So the upshot of all this really is the focus of your conference today, that working effectively with parents is absolutely essential. Because what parents do, or don’t do, for better or for worse, for their children does have a bigger impact than anything we can actually do. And that means on a very basic level we need to make sure that we provide universal services like good quality early education and care, out of school activities for children as well as enabling parents to work more flexibly and balance their childcare with their other responsibilities.
But even more importantly, we need to get better at engaging those parents who, for whatever reason, are not the first to knock on the doors of the shiny new children’s centre or pull the strings to get their child in to the brand new academy. What we need to acknowledge is that there are significant numbers of parents who traditionally won’t come to us necessarily of their own accord and who are indeed deeply suspicious of any potential source of intervention by the state. We have a duty, I think, to reach out to them, to win their confidence, just as much as we have a duty to serve the happy majority who are much more visible on our playgrounds, running after school sports clubs or making their voices heard at the local children’s centre or nursery.
So, it’s partly because I feel so strongly about this I’ve been deeply impressed by some of the work that many of you here today have been doing to reach out to those parents who we euphemistically if you like, refer to as 'hard to reach'. And I’m thinking in particular of the early learning partnerships project which is working to reach parents and helps to support their children’s early learning. And a number of organisations including PSLA are working together to reach those parents, including fathers as well as mothers, isolated parents and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
I was very moved by the story told to me recently of one mother who took part in the early learning partnership project who said 'before I came I was sitting at home actually looking at catalogues and not really taking very much notice of my son. Here, you can make more of a mess, you can play with the kids. For me this project has been a lifeline. It gets me out of the house and has helped me understand lots more about what I need to be doing with my son'. Or something like Bookstart, a very simple idea but one that can have a huge impact on families. We know the difference that parents sharing books with babies and toddlers can have on those children’s subsequent learning, and also on their social and emotional development. Bookstart delivers free books to families when babies are around 7–9 months through health visitors, with 2 further packs for children at 18 months and 3 years coming through childminders, libraries, and children’s centres. And what these schemes are doing is enabling more parents to build a rich home learning, a stimulating, home environment for their children from the earliest moment in their lives. Not intervening or telling parents what to do, simply saying — 'here’s some resources that will really help'. I think it is precisely this kind of sensitive, targeted, support that can make a huge difference to the lives of children.
Empowering their parents to be the best parents they can and enabling them to be in the best possible position to support their child’s learning and development. As I say, I think one thing that all of us as parents have in common is that we want the best for our children. But we need to recognise that some parents do face real barriers, and we have to work with them to help them overcome those barriers. And I think if we want to win the confidence of all parents, we’ve also got to be absolutely committed to making sure that what we deliver is high quality.
We know from research that good quality early years education and care is what makes the difference in the lives of children and their parents. But for any parent, I think, I know I remember it very clearly, leaving your child with someone else, particularly when they are very young is a very difficult decision and it is right that parents want assurances that staff are well trained, they’re knowledgeable, they’re qualified, that the experience that their children will get is a positive one characterised by learning and fun. And of course this isn’t only an issue about quality as a vital reassurance for parents, it’s also vital to those children’s development in the long‒term. Because research has shown very clearly again that it is only good quality education and care that has that positive impact on the outcomes for children and it is only by guaranteeing that quality that will convince parents who want to balance work, or looking for work and childcare that this is really a viable option for them. What the latest research from the EPPE project shows is that good quality early years education has a significant positive effect on children, not just shortly after they have had early years experience, but at least up to the age of ten. It improves their reading age and their maths skills. And the effect is most notable on children from disadvantaged backgrounds. And that is why the EYFS is so important. Because it is designed to help practitioners and providers to work with parents to plan what support their children can benefit from most. Whatever their background, whatever the issues, whether it is disability, behavioural problems for example, they may be facing. And we know this because parents, practitioners and providers all together helped us put the EYFS framework in place. And the many we’ve consulted too told us that this framework will help make the early years sector even stronger.
But if we all want our early years education and care to be good quality, and for parents to have confidence in it, then there are issues about funding that we have to look at very carefully. I’ll say again, top-up fees are not the answer, and we will not allow them – and I am very pleased to see your support for that stance. But I recognise that we do need a fair system for providers, right across the private, voluntary and independent sectors as well as the public sector. And I just want to say that we are all working to the same aim here. What we need is a diverse and sustainable early years education and childcare market, that offers parents proper choice and flexibility. And that means provision that is capable of providing for all parents and children, including those with very specific needs. And in particular I think we need to recognise that it doesn’t make any sense to have one set of funding rules for PVI providers delivering the early years entitlement, and another for those attached for schools in the private sector. Particularly when over 80% of all childcare (for all children of all ages) is delivered by PVI providers and a third of children actually access the free entitlement in the PVI settings as well.
Earlier this week we announced significant changes to the funding system for early years education and child care. And this package of reform is about supporting a diverse and sustainable market, investing in that quality that is so important, and getting to a funding system that is fair and transparent. The process of that reform starts straight away. Local authorities will be having to assess the costs to PVI providers of delivering the free entitlement and they will have to make sure the providers are properly represented in the local funding and planning decisions. We’re also going to publish information that compares local authority spending on early years. The next stage is that LAs will be counting — and funding pupils consistently across the different sectors, and then by 2010 all LAs will fund PVI providers and schools with the same approach. And 2010 is the last date — we want to encourage many to do so earlier than that and I am sure they will. While I recognise in these arrangements there is a need for local flexibility about how these changes are implemented, we will be changing legislation so that authorities are obliged to make these reforms. So I think these changes will get us closer to realising that aim we all share — of creating a diverse early years market that is characterised by exceptional quality and give parents real choice. And a fairness in the funding regime to support that.
So, some children do get a poor start in life still. But it shouldn’t be inevitable that a poor start becomes an impossible start. Poverty, parental income, poor health — these should not be permanent indelible markers that fast‐track children to under‐achievement. Deprivation shouldn’t be cyclical and disadvantage shouldn’t be passed down the generations like some faulty gene from parent to child. If by working with parents we can get it right in the first few years of a child’s life, we have a real chance for those children, if you like, of turning a poor start in to a jump start for them. And that means that every child has a fair chance of growing up to be successful and happy, reaching their potential and making a good contribution to society. Every child, in fact, getting no more, no less than what we want for our own children.