The States should agree next week to make the focus on early years and families a ‘super priority’ in its new Government Work Plan for the next three years.
A well-attended conference on early years at the weekend, which attracted more than 100 families, demonstrated the demand for more joined-up thinking in this area, said Education, Sport & Culture Committee president Paul Montague.
He said consideration of that would require consideration of a couples’ dilemma of whether it was feasible to have a child, or a second child, locally.
‘At the moment there are people who, after their first child, are genuinely reflecting on if they afford to have a second child,’ he said.
‘Taking all that time away from work, especially for women as their career progression can be damaged, is hard. There’s a real desire to get back into work, but childcare costs so much.
‘Jersey have stepped ahead of us, and have upped the ante to 30 hours of free provision for childcare for three to four-year-olds – when we only do 15.
‘We’re not out-of-whack with most of the rest of the British Isles, but we do need to look at how we can fund some way of making childcare, and pre-schools more accessible. That’s one of our main focuses.
‘It’s to do with youngsters and their development, it’s also to do with the island economy and it’s demography. We’ve got to make sure that we support young families to have children if they want to have children – that’s at the heart of it.’
The Government Work Plan includes specific mention of early years provision. Its aims is that by the end of the political term, a strategy will be in place that includes defining the States’ goals for a family-friendly community, access to early years health and care services, the funding and quality of childcare and early education, managing gaps and risks in services for vulnerable children, and supporting and providing opportunities for families in Guernsey.
Within government there should also be a focus on working towards the integration of cross-committee services, preventative approaches to care and support, and ensuring that our legislation is modern and fit for purpose.
Ruth Sharp, head of Early Years at the States, said that it was important to work across States committees to ensure each child was having all the key areas of their development met.
It focused on three prime areas – physical development, which includes diet; social-emotional development, which involves positive attachment relationships and regulating emotions; and speech, language and communication.
‘The early years – up to the age of five – is the biggest time of rapid brain growth,’ she said.
‘We’re learning so much more about how the brain develops and how best we can support that. And then within the services is that “community hug” around it all to make sure that we keep giving as much back. It’s wonderful to hear that it’s become a “super priority” across government. But the different committees have to work together on this, otherwise there’s the danger of silo working.
‘Early Years is effectively line-managed through education, but most of our partners are in Health & Social Care and there are so many other partners across government.’
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