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.
The First 1000 days programme reminds us that “The period during pregnancy and up to the child’s second birthday offers the greatest potential for impact in both improving outcomes and reducing inequalities.”
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.
Practice underpinned by policy and programmes
Welsh government policy makes a point of protecting and promoting the health of babies and young children, through policies such as:
- The Best Start in Life; An Early Years Framework for Action
- Flying Start
- Healthy Child Wales Programme
- The First 1000 Days programme
- Quality statement for maternity and neonatal services
- Children and young people’s plan
- The Marmot Principles
Services are provided by midwives, GPs, nurses, health visitors, childcare and nursery workers, teachers and dentists.
Families who need extra support may access 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 in need of support but can’t easily find it through social and family connections, and/or face cultural or language challenges.
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.
How this strategy was made
This strategy is the result of collaboration between Carmarthenshire County Council, Ceredigion County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council, Hywel Dda Unversity Health Board and our third sector partners.
The work was guided by the Welsh government’s desire for better integrated public services, the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.
We continue to consult with parents and early years professionals across the region, to better understand their circumstances, concerns and needs.
It is managed by the Regional Steering Group and Regional Partnership Board comprised of members of each organisation.
