Early Intervention: Issues and Impacts of Every Child Matters

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Early Intervention Issues and Impacts of Every
Child Matters
Presented by Ruth Kennedy Families
Division London PICE Conference
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Every Child Matters

• The Childrens Green Paper proposals were geared
  around
• Supporting parents and carers
• Early intervention and effective protection
• Accountability and integration
• Workforce reform

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The case for change

• The gaps between socio-economic groups are too
  wide
• The effects of disadvantage are felt early and
  often have lasting consequences
• Disadvantaged and at risk young people are
  lagging behind their peers in educational
  achievement

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A large minority experience problems
Less than1

• Permanent exclusions from school
• Imprisoned
• Teenage pregnancy
• On Child Protection Register
• Looked after now

1 to5

• Are or have been looked after
• Persistent truant
• Persistent offending
• Have tried hard drugs before 16

5 to10

• No qualifications at 16
• Solvent abuse
• Not in education, training or work
• Offending (up to 3 offences)

10 to30

• Run away from home
• Mental health problems
• Committed an offence in last year
• occasional truant
• Not in education, training or work
• at some point from 16 to 18

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Its not down to chance
Continuity of anti-social behaviour from age 5 to
17. Source Scott 2002
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Building on success

• Child poverty drive
• Sure Start Childrens Centres
• Extended and full service schools
• National Service Framework
• Young Peoples Fund
• Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy

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Progress so far

• Child poverty children and young people living
  in low income homes down 500,000 since 1997
• Education highest ever results at all key stages
  and strong progress in inner city schools through
  Excellence in Cities
• Teenage pregnancy teenage conception rates down
  10 per cent since 1998
• Youth offending reconviction rates down 22 per
  cent since 1997. Youth Crime in London down 15
  in 2 years. Youth Victimisation down 5.

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The cost of not intervening early enough
billion
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All other Children (85)
All other Children with SEN (89)
This includes all children dealt with by
childrens social services. Includes prevention
and protection.
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Children with a statement of SEN (11) Annual
cost of 2.1 billion or 9,000 per child
Children in care (15) Annual cost of 2.2
billion or 33,000 per child
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All other Children dealt with by YJB
Annual cost of 220 million
Children in custody
Childrens Social Services
Special Educational Needs
Youth Justice Board
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But children cut across organisational boundaries
and categories
200,000 children aged 10-17 have offended
67 have already been through a Social Services
assessment
65 have been excluded or are persistent truants
42 are underachieving at school
25 are not in education, employment or training
at 16
20 have a statement of SEN
For example, the profile of young offenders is
complex
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Conclusions

• Services need to work together more effectively
• A new focus is needed prevention rather than
  cure
• The child / young person comes first

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What were doing

• Supporting parents and carers giving children
  and young people the best
• start in life, through
• Sure Start Childrens Centres high quality
  early education flexible childcare
• Increasing access to information for parents and
  carers
• Encouraging parents to be interested and involved
  in their childs learning
• Targeting support - where parents or their
  children need it, in the home, at school, in
  appropriate ways - peer mentoring, parenting
  support classes etc
• Supporting people in their relationships
• More support for foster carers

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Success will be dependent upon

• Quality of engagement with the parent/s, from
  early in a childs life and sustained until young
  adulthood
• Finding high quality, evaluated, well-facilitated
  support to refer the parents to often through
  local Voluntary Sector providers
• Engagement with both parents, whether resident or
  not
• Follow-up work with the family
• Valuing parents as co-educators

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Can we really do prevention?

• Currently
• Parents are usually only considered as part of
  the problem, and are rarely engaged as part of
  the solution
• Parents are often only engaged by schools at
  crisis point
• We imply that customers of services are bad
  parents, stigmatising access to support
• We assume the parent is the mother
• Parents dont feel confident about knowing what
  they need to do to help childrens learning

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The Impact of Parental Involvement in Childrens
Education

• Positive parenting, and parental involvement in a
  childs learning is a more powerful determinant
  of success than the quality of the school
• Educational failure is increased by lack of
  parental interest in learning and schooling
• The frequency with which a child plays with
  letters/numbers at home and the frequency with
  which parents reported reading to their child is
  linked with better attainment in all measures
• In particular, a fathers interest in a childs
  education is strongly linked to educational
  outcomes for the child
• Parental involvement in a childs education for a
  child between the ages of 7 and 16 is a more
  powerful force than family background, size of
  family and level of parental education

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Further evidence suggests

• 70 believe the parenting skills can be taught
  20 believe it is innate
• Consistently strong association is found between
  harsh parenting styles and anti-social behaviour
  (Paterson, Dishion and Reid)
• Positive, effective parenting by fathers is
  associated with reduced emotional and behavioural
  difficulties, higher educational attainment
  (ESRC)
• Research shows that 75 of parents (regardless of
  social class background) say that there are times
  in their lives or in the lives of their children
  when they would like access to additional
  information, advice and support
• Many parents want to be involved in their
  childrens education only 25 say it is the
  sole responsibility of the school

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Parenting Support success factors

• Early interventions in general report better and
  more durable outcomes for children
• Quality and training of staff is vital to
  programme success, as is good support and
  supervision
• At a basic level, how parenting programmes are
  delivered may be as critical a factor in
  achieving positive outcomes as what their content
  is
• Provision of parenting programmes throughout the
  country is patchy. There are some areas where
  both the voluntary and statutory services report
  that provision is non-existent
• Working to avoid further stigma

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Impact for Parents and Communities

• Family Learning activities contribute to improved
  outcomes for everyone
• Parents engagement with their childs learning
  often leads to a revived interest in their own
  learning
• Capacity building within communities raising
  aspirations and expectations can result from
  parental involvement in childrens learning
• Children and young peoples learning is part of a
  parents investment for their future

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Conclusion Every Parent Matters

• Parents are in the most privileged position to
  influence childrens outcomes (risk/protective
  factors)
• Most parents want to do their best for their
  children
• Many parents dont know where to seek support at
  times of challenge or difficulty
• Many parents want more advice about how to help
  their child to learn
• We want to support and work with parents in
  seeking improved outcomes (social, health,
  emotional, educational etc) for children and
  young people
• We need to communicate an un-stigmatised
  entitlement to support, and engage all parents as
  agents for change

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