18/03/14 17:04
Early Years Taskforce
Willie Rennie among four new members.
Four new members have been appointed to Scotland’s Early Years Taskforce, which met in Edinburgh today.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP, Fraser Falconer, Head of BBC Children in Need in Scotland and Jane Wood, Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Business in the Community attended this afternoon’s meeting, while Alison Todd, soon to become chief executive of charity Children 1st, has also agreed to join.
Set up in 2011, the Taskforce aims to provide a strategic and co-ordinated approach to early years policy across the public sector and to ensure public spending on the early years of children’s lives and early intervention is prioritised - shifting the emphasis from public spending on dealing with health or social problems towards policies that prevent them in the first place.
The group is co-chaired by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).
The Minister for Children and Young People Aileen Campbell, who chaired the latest meeting, said:
“We know that investing in the early years of a child’s life can help prevent problems developing later on. Early intervention and investment make good sense for children’s life chances as well as sound financial sense for the public purse, since every £1 spent in the early years is estimated to generate an eventual saving of £9.
“The Taskforce has a key role to play in helping shape and co-ordinate the continuous improvement in services to support children and families across Scotland. We want Scotland to be the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up and I’m grateful to Alison, Fraser, Jane and Willie for agreeing to join the taskforce and I welcome the contribution and experience that they will bring.”
Mr Rennie said:
“Early years education, especially the expansion of nursery education to younger children, is something I believe is a priority for government. I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves to make a contribution to the effective implementation of the policy and best practice in the sector. The Early Years Taskforce has a good reputation and I am keen to play my part.”
Jane Wood, Chief Executive Officer of Scottish Business in the Community, added:
“We know that responsible business can be part of the solution and our work with schools and young people enables business to work towards our ambition for every young person, particularly those facing social disadvantage, to receive support from business to build successful working lives. There is enormous capacity within Scotland’s large corporates and its SME’s to support the governments objectives on Early Intervention and we look forward to working collaboratively to release this capacity for the greater benefit to Scotland’s young people.”
The Early Years Taskforce was established in November 2011, alongside the Early Years Change Fund, by the Scottish Government, in partnership with local government, the NHS, the police and the third sector. Its task is to take forward a significant change programme to help deliver the joint commitment to prioritising the Early Years of children’s lives and to early intervention, as originally set out in the Early Years Framework, published in December 2008.
The objective of this early years change programme is to accelerate the conversion of the high level principles set out in the Early Years Framework into practical action. This must:
- Deliver tangible improvement in outcomes for all of our children.
- Raise public awareness of the significance of the early years to children’s healthy development, and build the capacity of families and communities to secure better outcomes for themselves.
- Put Scotland squarely on course to shifting the balance of public services towards early intervention and prevention by 2016.
- Sustain this change to 2018 and beyond.