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EARLY YEARS STRATEGY
Executive Summary
i. This paper focuses on the services provided to young children (from pre-birth to 5) and their families. It sets out a framework which draws together existing policies from across the Executive in this area - whether that is promoting childcare, health visitor support, pre-school education or broader support for parenting skills. It seeks to promote greater coherence between these Executive policies to give better support to joined-up delivery on the ground.
ii. The paper sets out why support in the early years is so important; and why it is crucial to join up that support around the needs of the child and the family (section 1). It sets out where we want to be to enable all children to reach their full potential and to close the opportunity gap (section 2).
iii. The strategy includes the following objectives:
- ensuring that at least 15,000 vulnerable children under five have an integrated package of health, care and education support which meets their needs;
- providing a free, part time pre-school education place for all 3 and 4 year olds whose parents want one;
- ensuring that everyone who wants it should be able to access affordable, high quality childcare;
- ensuring every family with a new-born baby should have an assessment of their family's needs for health care, advice and continuing support by a trained health professional within the first weeks of life; and
- providing targeted support for families with children aged 0-3, particularly the most vulnerable and deprived.
iv. The strategy suggests a single set of outcomes and indicators (set out in full in paragraph 43) against which we should measure progress:
- To improve children's health
measured by: increased numbers of women breastfeeding; reduced proportion of women smoking during pregnancy; reduced percentage in low birth-weight babies; reduced dental decay; improved children's diet; and reduced infant mortality rates
- To improve children's social and emotional development
measured by: increased proportion of 5 year olds with normal levels of personal, social and emotional development; increased numbers of physically active children; and reduced referrals to the hearings system
- To improve children's ability to learn
measured by: increased educational attainment of all children in P3; and increased educational attainment of lowest attaining 20%.
- To strengthen families and communities
measured by: increased number of parents accessing support and learning opportunities; reduced level of child injuries; and reduced rates of post-natal depression
- To reduce barriers to employment - especially for lone parents, since work is the best route out of poverty
measured by: reduction in number of children living in workless households; and increased access to suitable childcare provision - particularly for disadvantaged groups.
v. The paper seeks your views on this set of outcomes; implications for planning and delivery of integrated early years services; on our proposals for monitoring and evaluation; and on what more we might do to improve coherence between funding streams (section 4).
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