Child Rearing

(asked on 17th July 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of fathers on (a) the development of children in the early years and (b) life chances.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 21st July 2017

Fathers play a fundamental role in their children’s development and future. The recently published study of early education and development (SEED) impact at age 3 report (available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627108/SEED_Impact_at_age_3_Research_Brief.pdf) demonstrated the important role parents play, particularly through the impact of the home learning environment (HLE). These findings are underpinned by findings from the effective pre-school, primary and secondary education (EPPSE) study (available here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/research/featured-research/effective-pre-school-primary-secondary-education-project/publications/#), which showed that the quality of the early HLE impacts on educational attainment through to GCSE and A-Level. The father’s level of educational qualifications specifically is also important for a range of cognitive, social emotional and other outcomes.

Early years providers are required, through the early years foundation stage framework (EYFS), to engage with parents and carers on their child’s development at home. Children’s centres, as set out in their core purpose, provide local services to parents to narrow inequalities in parenting aspirations and parenting skills. And in 2017, the department also put in place voluntary and charity sector grants worth almost £1.7m to improve the quality of the HLE for disadvantaged families and improve access to the disadvantaged two year-old offer.

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