Why the Early Years are so important
By “Early Years”, we mean the first 7 years of a child’s life – when children grow and develop more than at any other time in their life.
It includes the first 3 years, when children are most sensitive to their physical and social environment. This stage was described by the Welsh Parliament’s 1000 Days Consultation as “a time of tremendous potential and enormous vulnerability”.
Support in Early Years makes a difference to children as individuals, and through them, makes a difference to the health of Wales in the future. Early life experiences have a lasting impact, influencing health and wellbeing throughout childhood and well into adulthood.
Policy backed up by delivery
Welsh government policy makes a point of protecting and promoting the health of babies and young children, through policies such as:
- Building a Brighter Future: Early Years and Childcare Plan
- Flying Start
- Healthy Child Wales Programme
- First 1000 days consultation
- Maternity Care in Wales: A Five Year Vision for the Future
- Children and young people’s plan
Services are provided by midwives, GPs, nurses, health visitors, childcare and nursery workers, teachers and dentists.
Families who need extra support can call on social workers, family support workers, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, paediatricians, staff at Family Centres and Children’s Centres, housing workers and many, many others.
In short: providing good early years support is a team effort, and the team is very large.
We need to help professionals in all these groups, to deliver the best services for families. That help should start before birth, continuing through the early years and supporting the transition to school.
Focusing support on families who need it most
Life with young children is demanding, and families with young children often need a little extra help. Some get help from relatives and friends, but not all families have a strong support network.
We’re keen to focus our attention on those families who need support but can’t easily find it through social and family connections.
To help the children, we often need to help the adults who care for them, and ensuring that they have easy access to to the right support at the right time.
Some families may require further specialist support if they have children with emerging or additional learning needs.
Families in need shouldn’t need to know which public body is providing them with support. They just need the support.
This strategy sets out how we intend to provide it.
How this strategy was made
This strategy is the result of work by 4 core organisations: Carmarthenshire County Council, Ceredigion County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council, and Hywel Dda Unversity Health Board in collaboration with our third sector partners.
It is managed by the regional steering group populated by members of each organisation.
The work was guided by the Welsh government’s desire for better integrated public services, the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.
We consulted with parents in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, and early years professionals across the region, to better understand their circumstances, concerns and needs.
This strategy is not the answer to everything, and we don’t have control over all things that need to happen. But this is the direction we need to head in, and you’re invited to get involved and to help us make progress.
