During the budget we saw a fantastic commitment from the Chancellor to invest in and support the youngest members of our communities. Earlier this week, I was pleased to be able to contribute to a brilliant cross party debate on ensuring we provide every child with the best start in life.
Through my experience of working in children's services, I have seen a lot of this work first-hand and while we are very good at emergency responses and protecting children from harm, it is really positive that this debate moves the conversation on to how we can help all children thrive. This is not only a positive step for the social development of each individual child, but it it is good for the future economic development of the whole country.
When looking at how this funding is allocated, I would like Ministers to ensure it does not get caught within the bureaucracies of educational funding at a local authority level. The current system sees this funding go through the schools forum which, for understandable reasons, is largely dominated by the secondary schools. The early years sector, which is much smaller and made up of many different forms, struggles to make itself heard. I would also like to see more focus on innovation to provide a more joined up local early years offer, something the Family Hubs will help to deliver.
Following on from this, and moving away from funding, I raised two further asks of Ministers. The first was that a strategy to help children thrive, in line with the first 1,001 days ambitions and the Best Start for Life Report, be developed. This will allow new parents to better understand all the services which are open to them, from health visitors and breast feeding support, through to childcare and money advice. These services are all already there, but are often fragmented and difficult for new parent to find.
The other ask I had of Government was to look beyond some of the current inspection mechanisms, which are largely focussed on school readiness and avoidance of harm. While these are very important, I would like to see this expanded to take a more holistic approach to children's development.
