Child Development

Lord Northbourne Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Northbourne]

My Lords, I, too, am most grateful to the right reverend Prelate for introducing this important debate and for giving us such a broad canvas on which to explore the enormously important issue of child development. It is a time-limited debate and I, like the rest of your Lordships, must stick to only one aspect of this very important problem.

Speaker after speaker today has referred to the importance of parents. For my part, I believe that we are not doing enough to prepare our young people while they are in secondary school for the opportunities and challenges of adult life and, in particular, of parenting. In many schools today, they do not learn what used to be called the “soft skills”. Too many schools are “teaching to the exam” rather than giving their children what we used to think of as a balanced education.

I am a strong supporter of Michael Gove in his drive for better academic results but I am concerned that too many of our secondary schools have become crammers for getting young people into university, rather than places of education in the true sense of the word. What is often missing is what have been called the soft skills—relationship skills, social skills, emotional literacy, the skills of leadership and the ability to work as a team, as well as a sense of belonging, consideration for others and many other life skills which, we all know, are extremely important if one is to succeed in the adult world today.

Many of us were lucky enough to learn those skills in the family but some children today are not so lucky. In this country today most parents do a good job but there are some who, for a variety of reasons, are failing. It may be because they have an addiction problem or suffer from mental ill health, as has been mentioned by a number of speakers. It may also be due to family breakdown, domestic violence or a parent being in prison. Some cannot give their children the parenting they need because they themselves never enjoyed supportive parenting or a loving family.

I want to speak for a moment about the early years—a subject on which the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, and I have spoken before. Parenting is important because in recent years neurological science has taught us much more about brain development. The latter part of pregnancy, as the noble Baroness mentioned, and the first three years of life are crucial in the development of the child’s brain. By the child’s third birthday, the brain is 80% developed. During those first three early years a child should learn to love and to be loved; it should learn to feel safe and valued so that it can begin to develop an identity and the self-confidence to value itself; and it should be beginning to develop relationship skills with peers and adults. It might even learn to sit quietly, to listen and to do what it is told—at least for some of the time.

In these first three years, the role of loving attachment to one or more principal carers is crucial. That is why mothers and fathers are important. Girls need to be prepared for parenting long before they become pregnant—effectively in secondary school, where they should also learn about developing good interpersonal relationships.

I dare say that the Minister is going to say that these matters are covered by the PSHE programme. However, the reality exposed recently by Ofsted is disappointing. It shows that in most secondary schools today PSHE is either badly taught or not taught at all. Where it is taught, it tends to be treated as a Cinderella subject, often being taught by teachers with no specialist training in the subject. What are the Government doing about publishing their new PSHE policy, which has been deferred time and again? Will their new policy do anything to improve the chances of this subject being taken seriously in secondary schools?

I believe that our education system needs a cadre of well trained teachers with the confidence to teach PSHE and similar subjects in an interactive way, following and guiding the interests of their pupils. I believe that Ofsted should include in all its reports on schools a section on the development of the soft skills or life skills and on the quality of preparation for adult life. I also believe that one or more of the major teacher training colleges should start an experiment in developing courses for teachers who are keen to become specialists in the interactive teaching of the skills required for adult life.