Early years recommendations
A Plan for Early Action set 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.
The report noted that while these challenges are national, the South West’s challenges are compounded by regionally unique factors:
- Rurality causes greater isolation
- The scale of nursery closures in the South West is greater than anywhere else in the country
- Take-up of the national Healthy Start scheme is lower here than in any other region
The report called for local authorities – alone or in clusters – to establish Early Action Groups, tasked with implementing four core ideas:
Health Visiting
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.
Workforce development
Engaging multi-academy trusts and schools to support with early years workforce development – through training and qualifications offered at their sites.
Nutrition
Making nutritional guidelines mandatory rather than voluntary
Prioritisation and scrutiny
Establishing a new Cabinet Member for Infants within councils to prioritise action on early years.
