Early years recommendations
Our report on early years policy and practice sets out the compelling reasons why early years needs to be given urgent attention to address the loss of childcare places, the crisis in recruitment and retention in both health visiting and early years provision, and the lack of resource and funding in local government.
Last year
increase in poverty issues reported by Health Visitors
decrease in FTE Health Visitors since 2015
of the average wage is now spent on childcare
Our report calls for local authorities to establish Early Action Groups to bring together the public, private and voluntary sectors in implementing four core ideas:
1. Making health visiting a universal gateway service, including promoting parent-infant reading and recording progress in a new reading log to accompany the red book and being able to trigger a multi-agency visit where there is parental need.
2. Engaging multi-academy trusts and schools to support with early years workforce development – through training and qualifications offered at their sites.
3. Making nutritional guidelines mandatory rather than voluntary
4. Establishing a new Cabinet Member for Infants within councils to prioritise action on early years.
A Plan for Early Action: Opportunities for Change in Early Years Policy and Practice (August 2024)
