Evidence shows that high-quality early education boosts children's outcomes and narrows the attainment gap, regardless of a child's background. This is why it is vital that addressing barriers to social mobility begins at birth.
Yet, a new paper from the Sutton Trust, released in October, suggests that recent progress in improving the life chances for more deprived children in the early years are in danger of stalling. Some of the best opportunities to stop poor children becoming poor adults arise when children are very young.
The first six of the government's 12 social mobility opportunity areas have recently released their development plans (see box). These aim to provide children and young people living in these areas with the opportunities to fulfil their potential.
They have identified six broad barriers to social mobility that need to be addressed, three of which are specific to the early years: quality of childcare and early education, the home learning environment and parental engagement. Getting the early years right could mean reducing the later barriers to social mobility that arise through adolescence and adulthood.
All six opportunity areas have adopted a strong focus on communication, language and literacy development in their development plans (see case study).
Early years benefits
Our recent survey of school leaders found children are starting school less ready to participate in classroom activities, with speech, language and communication problems being the biggest issues identified by school leaders. Four-fifths of school leaders also said that children who had no previous early education demonstrated the most challenging issues.
Upskilling childcare professionals is another common theme within the development plans. The quality of childcare and early education is dependent on the staff who are educating our children. Our study of staff pay and quality of nurseries in England found a pay increase of just under £1 an hour was the difference between childcare settings rated "good" and "outstanding" by Ofsted.
We want to see a fully qualified, graduate-led workforce, equalising wages across private, voluntary and maintained settings.
The trust has called on the government to introduce a chief early years officer to represent the sector and drive improvements at the highest levels.
Childcare is as vital as the rails and roads to making our country run: it boosts children's outcomes, supports parents to work and provides our economy with a reliable workforce.
However, the social mobility of many parents is being torpedoed by high childcare costs that mean it doesn't pay to work.
To improve social mobility, we need a childcare system where all children can access high-quality childcare that will help them learn and develop, and where no parent has to pay to go to work because of high childcare costs.
Ellen Broomé is chief executive, the Family and Childcare Trust
ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
- In October 2016, the government announced plans to improve the life chances of children and young people in 12 English districts that scored poorly on the Social Mobility Index in 2016
- Last month, the first six areas - Blackpool, Derby, North Yorkshire, Norwich, Oldham and West Somerset - unveiled blueprints for how they will turn themselves from social mobility "cold spots" into "opportunity areas"
- Each action plan outlines a set of priorities and targets covering a range of services for disadvantaged children and families to be met by 2020/21
- Other areas earmarked for opportunity areas include Bradford, Doncaster, Fenland and East Cambridgeshire, Hastings, Ipswich and Stoke-on-Trent
- Delivery of action plans will be overseen by a local partnership board consisting of education providers, employers, the DfE and national education organisations
How Derby will address early years development issues to ensure children achieve improved levels
The issue: The percentage of children achieving "good level of development" at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage is three percentage points below the England average. Derby has a significantly higher than average level of children identified with speech, language and communication (SLC) needs, particularly in deprived wards.
Action this year: Launch four leadership programmes covering mathematics, English, reading comprehension and phonics to be delivered at 20 schools and early years settings. Provide help for children with English as an additional language in 20 early years settings.
Long-term aim: The council is to map provision, share best practice and identify gaps, and develop a city-wide approach to SLC using evidence-based intervention. Improved training for professionals will be delivered by the city's early years teaching school.
2020/21 target: Increase the number of children achieving a good level of development above the national average.
