Margaret Hodge
Language Development (0–3 year olds)
Westminster Hall
The Minister for Children (Margaret Hodge) : I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane) on securing this debate. It is sad that there is not greater interest in it, particularly given that the ambition on the Government side of the House is to secure much better equality of outcome for every child. My hon. Friend has identified a critical matter and there was nothing in his contribution with which I disagreed.
I have not read the book that was referred to—I would be delighted to have a copy—but I did read Polly Toynbee's article. She always writes incredibly powerfully and her articles make a contribution to social policy. Her articulation on what is a vital piece of our understanding of what makes for equality of opportunity was very important. Many of my colleagues in this sphere were also influenced by it. It was a really good bit of journalism, which I hope will be widely read.
That article highlights two stark facts that I will mention. One is that, by the age of four, a child from a professional background hears 50 million words, whereas a child from a welfare background hears only 12 million. That is a fantastic difference. The other, rather frightening, conclusion drawn from that research was that it would take 41 hours a week of talking at the level offered by the professional parent for the child from the working-class background to experience the same vocabulary. That shows the mountain that we have to climb if we are to achieve genuine equality of opportunity.
I draw your attention, Mr. Cook, and that of my hon. Friend to other bits of research that influenced our thinking. One is some research done by Feinstein, who demonstrates that one can measure children's cognitive development at 20 months and that there is a distribution regardless of social background and class. Some working-class kids have high cognitive skills and some middle-class and upper middle-class kids have low cognitive skills. However, over time, by the age of five or 10, class is really locked in so that the children with low cognitive skills from a high-income background overtake those with higher cognitive skills and a low-income background. That also demonstrates the importance of our intervention.
The other bit of research was given to me in my early days in this job. It was an analysis done by Charles des Forge of all the research literature about the importance of parenting and the influence of it on outcomes for children. He demonstrated what is common sense to us all: good parenting in the home has a greater impact on the educational outcome of children than do socio-economic background and the most excellent teacher in the most wonderful school. That is largely about parents talking to their children. If we can improve that aspect of parenting, we can improve outcomes for children.
We are thinking about—I would welcome any contribution from my hon. Friend—how we can strengthen parents in the home and support them in talking to their children; how we strengthen the role of fathers as well as mothers; how we provide support at key transition points; how we better develop the peer group support that comes from projects such as home start or the peers early education partnership, which is a good early intervention project whereby, in group situations, mothers are encouraged to develop their children's linguistic skills; and how we can spread those projects.
My hon. Friend described accurately and in detail many of the initiatives that we have taken to tackle child poverty and I echo something that he said. There are two ways that we tackle child poverty. One is through the tax and benefits system, and as a Government we have been incredibly successful in doing that, with a third of children lifted out of poverty through the changes that we have made to tax and benefit. However, the cycle of deprivation will never be stopped simply by intervening in the tax and benefits system. We also have to intervene to provide that equality of opportunity for children through the education system, health, housing and parenting skills. That is where the linguistic agenda comes into its own.
On the balance of funding, I could not agree more with my hon. Friend's analysis that we have got it wrong in Britain. We spend more per capita than any Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development comparator country on the elite group who go through to higher education, and we spend less than any comparator country on children in their early years. The Danes spend 2.4 per cent. of their gross domestic product on children in those years; despite the investment that we have made since we entered government, we still spend only 0.4 per cent. of our GDP on children in their early years. I know from conversations with the Chancellor and the Prime Minister that the issue of children and their early years is central to the political agenda and to the programmes in which the Government are engaged.
The assessment of research is obviously important. Much of the Sure Start programme—we have embarked on 524 Sure Start programmes around the country—is built on the High Scope Perry evidence. We are beginning to find evidence in England of the impact of early multi-disciplinary intervention on children and their families. In one Sure Start programme in Corby, the number of children who have to have a special educational needs assessment has been reduced by 10 per cent. In another programme in a London borough, children who were referred to the early-years programme by social services—very needy children—are now performing as well at key stage 1 as middle-class children from more advantaged homes. Leicester saw a 40 per cent. reduction in referrals to social services because of Sure Start and early intervention. We are getting there, and we will continue to review successful interventions.
We are engaged in longitudinal research. I am sure that that research is in the Library, but I will ensure that my hon. Friend receives a copy. Over a 10-year period, we are evaluating the impact of our interventions through what is known as EPPE—effective provision of pre-school education—research. We will use that knowledge to influence where we go from here.
I want to mention some initiatives that my hon. Friend did not. We have developed a pedagogical framework for all professionals working with children from birth to three. That is a step forward, and my hon. Friend might like to have a copy of the framework. It will be used by professionals and, we hope, by others to consider how they can best work with children in those early years to develop their potential. It contains a lot of information about speech development. We are now in the process of training professionals to feel comfortable using the "Birth to Three Matters" framework throughout early-years work.
We will also shortly publish a book about children's development from birth to three. We have called it "The Learning Journey: Birth to Three Matters". The book will help us explain to parents how children learn and develop from birth and will offer advice on supporting children's development. We are listening closely to children; one can listen to children from an early age. A project has been undertaken by the Coram family, which I found fascinating when I first went to see the research evidence. The evidence showed how listening to children will improve how one relates to them and will enable them to learn and develop their linguistic skills.
We have commissioned Manchester Metropolitan university to create an early language training programme for us, which will develop training materials to support early-years practitioners. Although in the first phase the focus will be the foundation stage, which involves three to six-year-olds, the project is linked to the "Birth to Three Matters" framework. We will extend it to the nought to three age group at a later stage.
The Sure Start unit is funding the development year of a campaign that we have called "Talk to Your Baby", which has come from the work of the National Literacy Trust. Again, the aim is to raise awareness.
I am delighted that we have had this short debate. This is a key issue. The best possible start for our young children is at the heart of Government policy. We will continue to drive our policies forward, which we believe will improve life chances. Early intervention with a mixture of universal initiatives, targeted support and mainstreaming will pay huge dividends for all our children.
