early-intervention-next-steps

6 Early Intervention: The Next Steps
in the frst three years thereafter, before a child’s
social and emotional responses become set.
17. The early years are far and away the greatest
period of growth in the human brain. It has been
estimated that the connections or synapses in a
baby’s brain grow 20-fold, from having perhaps
10 trillion at birth to 200 trillion at age 3. 4 For
a baby, this is an explosive process of learning
from the environment. The early years are a very
sensitive period when it is much easier to help
the developing social and emotional structure
of the infant brain, and after which the basic
architecture is formed for life. 5 However, it is not
impossible for the brain to develop later, but it
becomes signifcantly harder, particularly in terms
of emotional capabilities, which are largely set in
the frst 18 months of life.
0–3s or 0–18s?
18. It is parents and carers who are the key
agents to provide what makes a healthy child
between the ages of 0 and 3. However, to fulfl
their roles, parents and carers must themselves
beneft from policies across the age range 0–18
which signifcantly strengthen the ability of babies,
children and young people to raise their future
children with the social and emotional capabilities
that are the right of every child. These policies
are also interventions, which break damaging
cycles and prevent the transmission of social and
emotional underdevelopment through successive
generations. So I do not accept the false choice
that Early Intervention is either 0–3 alone or 0–18
alone. It must be both.
19. Similarly, even remedial programmes can fnd a
place in Early Intervention if they are helping create
better future parents. Interventions for these
older children, which attack the inter-generational
nature of poor social and emotional capabilities,
are also a legitimate strategic target in a strategy
of prevention. This is why Early Intervention
encompasses 0–18 programmes which enable
children to grow into young people with the social
and emotional competences they need to learn
and to make efective choices about life. Only by
acquiring these competences themselves will they
be able to transmit them to their own children.
20. Through Early Intervention the next and
succeeding generations could be prepared and
made ready for school, for work, for parenthood
and for life itself – and a virtuous circle would
replace the current vicious circle of failure. Such
a strategy would also call for particular attention
to be paid to children in care, young ofenders
and the children of ofenders, because their levels
of risk are very much higher than those of other
children and young people of their age.
21. However, I must make clear that fdelity to the
concept of Early Intervention cannot be stretched
to include every social intervention policy currently
on ofer, nor can it be used as an automatic
defence against the threat of public expenditure
cuts. As I make clear in Chapters 6 to 8, some
Early Intervention programmes are more true to
the original approach than others, and have a much
greater record of proven success.
22. To reiterate: Early Intervention may be most
efective before the age of 3, but we also need
to address those aged 0–18 so they can become
the most efective parents possible for the next
generation of 0–3s. The 0–18 cycle needs to be
addressed over and over again until the repetition
of dysfunction from one generation to another is
fnally broken.
23. In Chapter 2, I present in more depth the
scientifc evidence that supports the success
of Early Intervention mechanisms and the
benchmarks that demonstrate achievement.
However, I think it helpful now to outline in
general the social and emotional capabilities which
I believe to be a bulwark against the cycle of
dysfunction. They are set out in Box 1.1.