Early Years Intervention

Lord Bhatia Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bhatia (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I strongly support the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, in raising this serious issue, which is causing harm to the most vulnerable children in our society. I have been involved in early childhood education for over 50 years in east Africa, from where I come, in the United Kingdom and in Michigan in the USA.

I was a board member of one of the most eminent early childhood foundations, the HighScope Educational Research Foundation in Michigan. HighScope’s Perry preschool research study examined the lives of 123 children born in poverty and at high risk of failing in school. The study found that adults at age 40 who had the preschool programme had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not have preschool education. It was estimated that when the US Government spent $1 on preschool education, it saved $7 in the long run as it cost more to deal with the crime and delinquency of the children who did not receive preschool education.

In a report that I read a few years ago, I found the following information:

“A wealth of evidence shows that education is a key determinant of life chances. As well as being a right in itself”,

education allows,

“individuals to develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights and economic opportunities”.

We need to constantly remember and remind ourselves that education starts at the age of two, which is why early years education, free for all, is an imperative. By the time the child reaches school age, most key brain wiring, language ability and cognitive foundations have been set in place. The early years are critical in the formation of intelligence, personality, social behaviour and physical development.

Investment in the early years offers outstanding returns in both human and financial terms. If children become confident and enthusiastic for learning early on in life, they are more likely to be better students. Children who get a good start do better in school, are healthier and function better as adults. Recent studies, including those by the Nobel laureate James Heckman, have shown that investment in childhood education is more efficient and cost effective than remedial programmes for adults. A 2007 UNESCO paper suggests that one of the compelling arguments for investment in early childhood education is that the failure to do so perpetuates social and economic disparity and the waste of social and human potential.

There is a business case, as well as an educational case, for the Government making early years education free and mandatory. It is sad to see that early years education provision suffers every time there are economic crises, which ends up hitting the most vulnerable children and their families.

Will the Minister tell the House whether free preschool education for children of two to four years can be made available, with trained teachers and facilities, over the next five years? What would be the estimated cost of such a five-year programme? Would the estimated cost be ring-fenced in the national budget?