Scotland's deputy minister for children and young people, Robert Brown, said nurturing enthusiasm and confidence in our youngest citizens - the theme of Children in Scotland's annual conference 2005 - is "at the top of the Scottish Executive's policy agenda". Better investment in the early years emerged as a key priority. Speaker Alan Sinclair, senior director of skills and learning at Scottish Enterprise, said that although it was still committed to programmes aimed at 16- to 23-year-olds, this required high levels of investment and added: "Where do you get the greatest financial return spent on education and training? The answer is the...