Four in ten parents in the East struggle to access early years support
Action for Children are calling for immediate changes to be made
There's a growing crisis as more than four in ten parents of children under 5 are struggling to access vital child development and parenting support in the East.
That's according to Action for Children, who say 26% of these parents have no access to early years services.
Penny Olivo is the charity's service manager for the East: "It's really important that children get to access opportunities where they can play with other children and for parents to meet other parents with children of a similar age.
"It all really helps with a child's development, from their speech and language development to their emotional development. It also really helps them to be ready for school, so they're ready to learn.
"It's so important we get that right from the beginning."
Early years services, normally found in children’s centres and family hubs, include non-childcare programmes to support children’s education and development, such baby and toddler groups and parenting programmes.
Penny notes it's often those who need the support the most that struggle to get it: "You can see a variance in families who have come from more disadvantaged backgrounds who, perhaps, have lower incomes, so find it harder to access services that are available. You can definitely see a difference in these children."
According to the charity's research, low-income parents across England were 40% more likely to have problems getting early years support in comparison to the highest income families (25%).
Penny does note, though, that this attainment gap can be closed: "If it's identified early enough and they can get the right support in, those children can catch up and those families can get the support that they need.
"But to do this, it's important that the support is actually available, so those children and families can access it."
The charity says funding pressures have impacted the provision of early years services over recent years as nationally, the main barrier (27%) to accessing support was that the services were simply not available in local areas, with over a quarter (26%) East of England parents agreeing.
Financial barriers were also prevalent for parents, as the cost-of-living crisis worsens. Parents who weren’t within walking distance of services cited the cost of petrol or public transport as their biggest challenge to accessing early years support.
Nationally, Black, Asian and minority ethnic parents, younger parents, and fathers, were also more likely to have faced difficulty accessing services.
Now, to combat these issues, Action for Children are calling for the new Prime Minister to ensure every family has access to early years services as part of the ‘levelling up’ agenda with sustained investment for parenting support.
Penny told us: "If we're going to make a difference for children at the earliest point in their lives, and you want to see the impact of that into their future and their adulthood, now's the time to make that commitment to sustainable funding for parenting support and child development."
Rossanna Trudgian, head of campaigns and public affairs at Action for Children, said: “Every child deserves a chance at having the best start in life, that’s why we’re worried that disadvantaged children are being blocked from accessing the services that allow them to catch up and level up for when they start school.
“We know from our own frontline services that helping families as early as possible is more effective in the long-run so investing in high quality child support and parenting programmes in every community should be a core part of the ‘levelling-up’ agenda.
“We urge the next Prime Minister to take urgent action to deliver a long-term plan for early years services with sustained investment in parenting support to ensure every child in the East of England and across the country gets the foundations they need to thrive.”