News Insight: Joint working -- A manifesto for early intervention

It would be difficult to find anyone who would argue against the importance of early intervention across children and young people's services.

The idea of addressing social and personal issues early is endorsed by campaigners and politicians as absolutely worth striving for.

The key barrier to boosting early intervention services, however, is funding. In the current economic situation, none of the main parties will commit themselves to substantial investment.

So how likely is it that a series of policy recommendations in a report published this week by Action for Children will come to fruition?

Deprivation and Risk: the Case for Early Intervention is part of a series of reports being produced by the charity. It follows last September's Backing the Future report, which called for a sea change in the way services are delivered and focused on shifting investment from acute services to early intervention.

Longer school days

The latest report takes a more detailed look at areas that can be improved immediately without the need for huge sums of new cash.

Among these are a number of changes that can be made in schools including lengthening the school day, recruiting more ethnic minority staff to create role models and providing healthy free school meals in a "non-stigmatising" way.

The rationale behind lengthening the school day is that it would ensure children are not at risk of going home at a time when their parents or carers might not be there.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), says a statutory lengthening of the day should be out of the question. "A majority of schools have extended day activities, but schools are not a babysitting service and cannot be expected to solve the problems of society," he says. "There is no sense in making something like this compulsory."

He says there is already recognition that there are not enough ethnic minority teachers in some schools and of the valuable role they can play, but that change will not happen overnight.

"You can't suddenly create a multi-ethnic force of qualified teachers," he says. "It is not easy and will take time and require a consistent policy on the part of the government and the Training and Development Agency for Schools."

Another key issue identified in the report is the fact that parents on low incomes in rural areas often have more difficulty accessing a range of children's services, including good quality early years provision.

Andrew Cozens, strategic adviser for children, adults and health services at the Improvement and Development Agency, says some local authorities are already managing to address the issue, for example, by creating mobile services that can visit rural areas.

"The requirement for councils is to look at the sufficiency of supply, so that parents have a choice in rural areas," he says.

Free internet access

The call for better rural provision ties in with a further recommendation that there should be a commitment to universal, full-time, high quality, free nursery provision, especially in remote rural areas and places with high deprivation.

Other areas for progress identified in the report include the provision of free internet access for all children and offering better support for parents with mental health problems.

Jody Aked, a researcher at the New Economics Foundation, says more needs to be done to provide a network of support services to help parents suffering from mental health problems within their own communities. "I don't think the solutions are expensive; they are relatively cheaper than the intensive programmes needed when a child starts displaying conduct disorder," she says.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS ACTION FOR CHILDREN'S KEY POINTS

Education

Attracting more recruits from ethnic minorities will help to provide positive role models for children.

Extending the statutory school day — to as late as 7pm — will help avoid children going home when a parent is not there. It would also allow children to take part in non-academic lessons such as sport, drama or vocationally related subjects. Healthy, free school meals, provided in a "non-stigmatising way", will give vulnerable children the best chance of growing up healthy.

Technology

All children, including those in remote parts of the UK, should have easy and free public access to high-bandwidth broadband, both within and outside school.

Early childcare

There needs to be a commitment to universal, full-time, high quality, free nursery provision, with priority being given to rolling out these services in more remote rural areas and areas of high deprivation.

Health

Public health considerations should be factored into all policy initiatives. Policy must be aimed at better supporting parents with mental ill-health and other issues that may limit their capacity to parent.

Safeguarding

The UK should look to emulate countries such as Spain, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, where death rates from child maltreatment are lower. The policy focus is preventative and aims to support the wider family.