You state that “early years policy is in urgent need of a reboot”, to support “troubled families” (Editorial, 13 September). In the 1980s, as part of my research towards what became the Sure Start projects, implemented here during the noughties, I visited numerous children’s centres in Europe. There I saw nurseries being used by children and their families, evenings and weekends. I witnessed Saturday morning parent classes in Reggio Emilia, and after-school homework clubs for older children in Frankfurt’s Kindertagesstätte. A nursery school is the right setting to provide shelter and support for vulnerable children after school and at weekends.
Because 28% of four and five-year-olds enter mainstream school without the requisite language and literacy skills, Sir Al Aynsley-Green asked, “Where’s the outrage about this?” (Observer, 8 September). He points out that the brains of toddlers make thousands of new connections every minute, if they are emotionally and intellectually stimulated. Young children do not learn in a simplistic linear way, rather through a complex network of rich interconnecting influences which only a well-designed nursery, with a rich well-structured curriculum, offers.
An important long-term study around the benefits of good-quality early years, by Schweinhart and Weikart undertaken in the US over 20 years, found that for every dollar invested in the pre-school programme, the return to society was fourfold. The research found that 20% fewer who participated were arrested for criminal acts, 14% fewer were arrested for crimes involving property or violence, etc.
It’s not a reboot we need, just a resumption of Sure Start, which has been so wantonly vandalised.
Mark Dudek
Author of Kindergarten Architecture, London
• As your editorial suggests, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s manifesto is to be welcomed. The six core points, if implemented, have the potential to improve the lives of the specific groups of children and families in need outlined. However, what would improve the lives of all children and young people – and should be identified as the foundation stones for political change – are, first a comprehensive programme to reduce inequality in its many forms, and second, policies to improve the active participation and involvement of children and young people in all the institutions which shape their lives. The right to vote at 16 would be a good start.
Professor Mike Stein
University of York
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