Early years needs ‘urgent attention’ as focus too often on parents – report

Health visitors must be given the power to trigger joint visits from social care specialists such as drug abuse counsellors, a report has said as it warned infant services are often too focused on a child’s parents.

The report into provision for children up to five years old, produced by the South-West Social Mobility Commission at the University of Exeter, said the early years sector “needs to be given urgent attention”.

It cited a loss of childcare places, a “crisis” in recruitment and retention in both health visiting and early years provision, and a lack of resource and funding in local government.

Among a series of recommendations, the report said councils should be prepared to send other social service professionals including welfare rights advisers or drug abuse counsellors on visits “so that a multi-service approach to the wider family is delivered”.

The report, which said health visitors should be able to trigger these joint visits, noted how often “children’s services are often better understood as parent services”.

Interviewees said “too many of those who are involved in an infant’s life do not see the child”.

Some said this was a negative thing as it led to services neglecting the infants, arguing that health visits which are more focused on dealing with substance addiction or domestic abuse mean little time is spent on discussions of the child’s welfare.

But others thought helping parents had direct, positive consequences for children, noting that lingering problems related to health and finances mean parents can be less well equipped to provide for their children, the report said.

Dr Antony Mullen, the report’s principal author, said: “What happens in children’s earliest years of life is foundational to their future success.

“Health visitors are increasingly expected to deal with parental issues like drug abuse, financial issues and domestic abuse problems. There is a danger services have become more focused on parents than the infants.

“Long-term, large-scale investment in the sector is needed, and in this report we show how there are also low and no-cost solutions that can be implemented locally and relatively quickly.”

Former Ofsted chief Sir David Bell has endorsed the report, which involved interviews with 27 expert informants ranging from health visitors to people in local government and early years teachers, saying it “expertly binds together practice and policy to provide a series of important recommendations”.

The report calls for a Cabinet or deputy Cabinet member for the infant, an expansion of the number of professional psychologists working in the field of infant mental health and for local authorities to monitor the ratio of children to childcare places to allow a case to be made for additional funding to expand provision within the sector where needed.

The report referenced research by the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV), published earlier this year, which found that increasing poverty is the cause of greatest concern to health visitor, with the vast majority having reported a rise in the number of families affected by the issue in past 12 months.

Almost nine in 10 health visitors surveyed said they had seen an increase in the use of food banks, while half reported more families skipping meals as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, that research showed.

The iHV described its research as the largest survey of frontline health visitors working with families with babies and young children across the UK.

The issue of child poverty has been a challenge for the new Labour Government, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer challenged last month over his refusal to immediately axe the two-child benefit cap.

Seven Labour MPs were suspended by the party after backing an SNP motion to scrap the welfare measure in a vote in Parliament.

The latest figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions showed there were 1.6 million children living in households affected by the policy as of April this year, up from 1.5 million to April 2023.

Labour has cited spending controls as a reason for not being able to immediately ditch the policy, indicating there would be no change to the policy without economic growth.

Sir David said: “A high-quality experience in the early years can have a profoundly positive effect on children, particularly those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

“Thoughtful and well-evidenced reports such as this one will play a key role as we work together to make the United Kingdom the best place in the world to be a child and to grow up.”

A Government spokesperson said: “This Government sees the early years as more than just childcare; it is central to our mission to break down barriers to opportunity, create the healthiest generation of children ever and give every child the best start in life.

“We’re committed to working closely with sector partners and providers to support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and will deliver real change by integrating childcare and early years into the wider education system as a national priority.”