Focus on the under-fives, says Field's poverty review

In his independent review on poverty and life chances, Mr Field said that the Government should adopt the term 'the Foundation Years' to encompass pregnancy to age five. He said it would help give these 'crucial years' equal status and importance in the public mind to primary and secondary schools, and ensure that child development and services during the early years are understood.

Mr Field said, 'We have found overwhelming evidence that children's life chances are heavily predicted on their development in the first five years of life. It is family background, parental education, good parenting and the opportunities for learning and development in those crucial years that together matter more to children than money, in determining whether their potential is realised in adult life.'

Schools should teach parenting and life skills, he said, with Sure Start continuing this.

'Parents are the key driver in determining their children's life chances. It's not so much who parents are - what their jobs are - but what parents do - how they nurture their children, which, the evidence shows, determines a child's life's race.'

He said there should be a new set of Life Chances Indicators to measure children's cognitive, physical and emotional development at the ages of three and five.

These indicators should be published each year by the Government so that taxpayers can see what progress is being made and so that local authorities and early years providers are accountable.

Mr Field also called for reform of children's centres, with contracts for Sure Start Mark II put out to tender so that GPs, voluntary organisations, housing associations, schools and staff themselves bid to run centres.

Funding should be gradually moved to the early years and weighted toward the most disadvantaged children, and the Fairness Premium should start in pregnancy.

The report said that Governments should in future not automatically increase benefits for children without considering whether the life chances of poorer children will be improved by transferring any benefit increases into building the Foundation Years.

The report recommends that the Government develop a long-term strategy to increase the life chances of poorer children by narrowing the gaps in outcomes between poorer and richer children in the Foundation Years as the most cost-effective way to address inequalities in adult life.

Mr Field said he hoped the Government's social mobility strategy, to be published in the New Year, will reflect this recommendation.

Responding to the review, Prime Minister David Cameron, who commissioned it, and deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said it was 'a hugely welcome contribution' to the debate about poverty.

They said that they welcomed the focus on early years as the critical years for promoting a more mobile and fairer society.

They also agreed that there was a need for a framework based on life chances, with inter-generational poverty given as much weight as income measures, and a need 'to look at poverty in the round, and over time'.

COMMENTS FROM THE SECTOR

'While the review shows why initiatives such as free nursery education and the forthcoming free places for disadvantaged two-year-olds are so critical, it is important to recognise that nurseries are willing and able to provide these essential services but currently lack the funding to do so sustainably.'

NDNA

'It would be a grave mistake if children's centres become places attended by only the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised families. We want to see children and parents from all backgrounds being able to mix.'

Pre-School Learning Alliance

'The review has found overwhelming evidence that children's life chances are heavily predicted on the first five years of life. Shamefully, many of the decisions of the Coalition Government fly in the face of this. The removal of ring-fencing of many early years grants has resulted in local authorities choosing not to spend their Sure Start allocation on young children and their families.'

Early Education