Understanding the critical role of early years intervention – UK models and approaches
Adapted from a recent keynote speech given by the Rt Hon Robert Halfon at an HCRG event in Manchester, this series of blogs looks at lessons learned from different approaches to early years interventions. In his first blog, Robert looked at what countries across the world are doing, and how we can adapt their approaches to suit our domestic needs. In this blog, he looks at the successes found throughout the UK and their positive impact on child development.
HCRG Care Group’s role in delivering early intervention services
There are some great examples of the work HCRG Care Group has been doing across the country, especially in my patch in Essex. Here, HCRG have partnered with Barnardo’s to deliver the Child and Family Wellbeing Service. The focus of this hub is on making sure that everyone in Essex has the best possible start in life through having free and easy access to high quality services in their community, school, family home or within a Family Hub. They support families and children from pre-birth to the age of 19, or 25 for those with SEND and do a vital job in giving everyone the best start in life.
Services like these operate up and down the country, with varying models and approaches. Above all, they aim to be preventative where they can and, from my personal experience in visiting the services in Essex, the impact that they have can be huge.
To ensure every child can access the educational opportunities they deserve to get the best start in life, early intervention is crucial. But it’s not just in Essex where these services are having a huge impact; they are delivering across the country and showing huge potential to do even more as we look to the future.
National case studies & successes
These outcomes and benefits contribute to improving the overall health and well-being of children, young people, and families across the UK, while also potentially reducing the burden on other healthcare services through early intervention and prevention strategies.
This comprehensive approach aligns well with the Family Hub model; providing integrated, sustainable and accessible support for families and young people close to home; reducing the burden on our public services; and working to ensure every child gets the support they need to start their climb up the ladder of opportunity.
For example, Salford City Council have taken a strengths-based approach by really listening to local families about what they need and providing those services. They’ve used Family Hubs and Start for Life funding to invest in their 0-2 offer, perinatal mental health services and peer-to-peer infant feeding support.
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has focussed on creating a unified online Family Hub to improve digital access to services. Their research found that 90% of families believed this would significantly improve their daily lives.
Cornwall has not only improved frontline services but also invested in staff training and governance to create a more sustainable model.
A focus on Manchester
The Manchester Children and Parents Service (CAPS) has been highlighted by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence as a model for best practice for Early Years social and emotional well-being. CAPS is a jointly commissioned, multi-agency partnership between health services, early years and several voluntary sector organisations which delivers parent programmes, guidance and targeted initiatives like Think Equal, to a diverse population of families with children experiencing emotional and behavioural problems across Manchester.
The Think Equal Programme is a pioneering early-years development programme which has supported more than 42,000 children across the region. It’s been implemented in almost 1,000 reception classes and in 659 nurseries across all ten local authorities and supports the social and emotional development of children aged 3-5 as part of Greater Manchester’s Covid recovery and school-readiness work. Early indications are already showing this approach is working and we expect to see further improvements highlighted in the next tranche of school-readiness data.
Manchester was a seminal focus of a Select Committee report I launched as the Chair in 2018 and one of our key recommendations was for the government to build on the evidence in Greater Manchester, especially where every child is assessed eight times up to their fifth birthday, including for communication and language development. This model allowed for immediate interventions where problems were identified and is something I still believe should be followed across the country.
However, there are some key factors we need to take note of which underline Manchester’s success. They are:
- Using evidence-based models and robust measures to collect outcomes data.
- Adopting a collaborative approach with multiple agencies.
- Establishing a training hub for practitioners.
- Having champions within services to advocate for evidence-based practice.
- Providing access to high-quality supervision and consultation.
Adopting these fundamental principles and ways of working is critical to the ongoing success of the Family Hub model.
