The Sutton Trust Early Years Programme

"The most important years in a child's life are the first three, when they acquire skills like empathy, compromise, communication and negotiation that allow them to make good decisions in life - and bad ones. The environment parents create for their child during these early years is vital; ... But parenting is difficult - children do not come with a manual. This is why we require early-years initiatives to offer support to parents."
Det Ch Supt John Carnochan, Head, Violence Reduction Unit, Glasgow (The Guardian, 7th May 2007).

The Sutton Trust funds projects that provide support for parents and carers as their children's first educators (targeting age group 0-3). The particular challenge for the Trust is finding projects that are able to connect with the "hard to reach" parents and encourage them to engage in their child's early learning and to realise the important part that they play. Ultimately the aim is to combat the wide and growing difference in educational attainment between advantaged and disadvantaged children which can be evident as early as 22 months, a difference which can be seen clearly when children reach school age, and which has a long-term impact on educational success.

Early Years Projects recently supported by the Sutton Trust include:

Room to Play

A free informal drop-in centre for parents and children with a difference. It is based in a former sweet shop in a busy community centre at the heart of a deprived area in the Midlands.

It is part of a three year project run by the Peers Early Education Partnership (PEEP) which aims to support parents and carers to understand and facilitate their children's learning. The initiative is being funded by the Sutton Trust in partnership with the Garfield Weston Foundation, after a successful pilot year in 2005. It aims to reach particularly - but not exclusively - parents who would be reluctant to access the more formal provision provided by social services and the health authority.

The object of the project is to develop a model for drop-in play and information points in urban shopping centres to counter social exclusion among parents who find themselves victims of unemployment, discrimination, poor skills, low incomes, substandard housing, high crime, ill-health and family breakdown.

Room to Play is being evaluated by Professor Kathy Sylva at the University of Oxford's Department of Educational Studies. A preliminary report on the shop's first three months of operation has been completed and finds that although it is too early to say whether the shop is making a difference, it is - encouragingly - being accessed by a wide cross-section of people including a 'small but significant proportion of "hard to reach" families who would have a high number of risk factors that would make them a target for a range of services'. Local health visitors are also recommending the shop to families.

The report concludes: "There is, justifiably, a real sense of achievement from the staff involved in the project that, despite a few 'teething troubles', the shop has begun very much as it was hoped... It has been a very promising beginning." The second phase of the evaluation due in 2007 will aim to determine how far the project is helping the families it was created to assist.

Summary of the Sutton Trust Shopping Centre Project: Room to Play
Evaluation of the Sutton Trust Shopping Centre Project: Room to Play
www.peep.org.uk

Home Programme

PEEP's Home Programme which targets isolated families in their home setting. The initiative is wide-ranging and aims to promote positive adult/child communication and to encourage appropriate play activities to aid children's cognitive development. Importantly, it offers an opportunity for parents and carers to identify and discuss development goals with trained PEEP staff, for example concerning their child's speech and language skills, early learning and self esteem.

Baby Express

Baby Express is a monthly newsletter distributed to parents over the first year of their child's life. It is produced by The Children's Foundation and was originally launched as part of a study on the impacts of parenting newsletters. It is age-paced with each issue covering a short, specific age in the life of a child. Each issue is packed with information and guidance in an easy to read format and includes a focus on emotional development, language, and how babies think. In addition, Toddler Express is produced bi-monthly to the age of three, and Kids Express bi-monthly until the age of five. Baby Express was the subject of a randomised controlled trial in the North East of England looking at parental wellbeing, stress resulting from the infant and parenting quality over the first three years of life, the Sutton Trust contributed to this trial. At the end of the first year, interviews in the home revealed that mothers receiving the newsletter scored significantly less than controls on a parental hassle score, which indicated the frequency and severity of hassles caused by the baby. They were also rated better on two categories of a parenting quality questionnaire, specifically on showing inappropriate expectations of the infant and oppressing children's independence.

Talk to your Baby Campaign

Talk To Your Baby is a campaign run by the National Literacy Trust to encourage parents and carers to talk more to children from birth to three.

Talking and listening to young children helps them develop good language and communication skills, which enables them to express themselves, listen, learn, read, write and socialise better. It also helps children feel valued, builds their confidence and helps parents and children to bond.

Too many children in the UK are entering nursery and school with inadequate language and communication skills. Some of these children - an average of two in every classroom - will have specific speech or language impairments which will need professional help. Many others, however, may not have had enough opportunities to develop their communication skills as babies and toddlers. They can remain at a disadvantage compared with those who grow up in language-rich homes.

www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/

Thurrock Community Mothers

The Trust provided funding for a part time Community Mother Development Worker in South Ockendon. The main purpose of the post was to provide proactive outreach to vulnerable and isolated families in the area who have young children and to encourage them to take up the Community Mother home visiting scheme. New parents are notified of the project via the health authority new birth list. The local housing office notifies parents with young children who are moving in to the area. Community Mothers work to a set programme (Bristol University's Child Development programme) following worksheets illustrated in cartoon form which are also suitable for those who do not have high literacy levels. Resource packs on basic skills are provided and the development workers are all basic skills tutors. The whole process is educational; parents are encouraged to address their literacy problems whilst helping their children.

Home Start Merton - Teenage Mothers Support Project

Young Mother and Mothers to be
Project offering support to young mothers with a new baby. The emphasis is on socialisation and peer support, preparing mothers to be more confident parents, able to articulate their concerns and fears to peers and professionals.

The Moving on Together group
The next stage of the programme, when the child reaches its first birthday, which looks to support the parents as first educators and to promote to mothers opportunities for returning to learning, volunteering or work.

www.home-start.org.uk

Useful links

• www.peep.org.uk
• www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/
• www.home-start.org.uk

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