Title: EARLY INTERVENTION IN NOTTINGHAM
1EARLY INTERVENTION IN NOTTINGHAM
- Graham Allen
- Independent Chair of One Nottingham
- The Local Strategic Partnership
2Early Intervention in Nottingham
- When kids arrive at my Primary unable to talk
properly, mix, or can only work out differences
with violence, we are already requiring remedial
investment Nottingham Primary teacher - I want youngsters to come into my business not
just with the right qualifications but with the
personal abilities to make a real contribution
and commitment to my team and the skills to
connect with my customers Nottingham
businesswoman - They frighten me, these kids, we werent angels
but we rubbed along. This lot are like animals,
no respect for anyone or anything Nottingham
pensioner - Like most public services we are here to pick up
the pieces after things have gone wrong way back
in peoples lives Nottingham police officer - I just want the best for my child Nottingham
single mum
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4Use It or Lose It
The more a neural system is activated, the more
that system changes to reflect that pattern of
activation This is the basis for development,
memory and learning
5Stimulus e.g. Parents speech and Child Vocabulary
6Pathways often laid down by age 3 e.g. crime
- Dunedin study
- At risk group offences much more serious
- (e.g. robbery, rape, homicide)
- Fewer females conduct disordered, but for those
who were - 30 of at risk group had teenage births (vs.
0) - 43 were in violent, abusive relationships
Immature mothers, with no strong parenting
skills and violent partners have already borne
the next generation of at risk children
7The best time to influence the character of a
child is 100 years before they are born. W.R.
Inge
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9We live in a child-illiterate society
- We have lost our efficient mechanisms for
trans-generational passage of child-rearing
beliefs and practices.
10Decrease in the Size of Households Privacy and
Isolation
11Neglecting Our Greatest Biological Gifts
- The power of relationships
- The brains malleability in early childhood
12Healthy Nottingham
- Economic stability
- Cultural wealth active arts,
- Tolerant and respectful of diversity
- Safe
- Opportunity for enrichment
- Literate, invested in education
- Supportive of young children and families
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14What to do about violence
- We have the level of criminal violence we do not
because we do not know what to do, but because
we have decided the benefits of changing arent
worth the costs. - Elliott Currie, 1985
- For it is really quite clear that we can prevent
violence, and it is also clear how we can do so,
if we want to - James Gilligan, 1996
15Keys Attunement and Empathy
- Empathy the single greatest inhibitor of
propensity to violence - Established early by observation of parental
reaction - Babies show empathy by one year old. Not all
develop this - All rapport, the root of caring, stems from the
capacity for empathy - Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence
16Recent Developments in Neuroscience
17www.ChildTraumaAcademy.org
18Early Prevention saves public money
- US Head Start benefits 2.50-10 per 1 invested
- Intensive home visiting paid back in 4 years,
next 11 years all gain. Prof David Olds Denver,
originator of Nurse Family Partnerships. - All parties are getting it. Iain Duncan Smith
MP In the United States they have found for
every dollar invested in the first three years of
a childs life, there is up to a seventeen fold
return - If we can use the reading results of 8 year olds
to build jails we can also use them to plan early
intervention. Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking in
Nottingham on 4th August 2007.
19Implication for optimum investment
20Pattern of public spending on education in
England Wales over the life cycle, 2002/2003
21Recommendations Personal measures
- Every child should be enabled to be school
ready at 4 or 5 - No child should leave school without training in
non-violent parenting and attunement with
babies, i.e. Be Life Ready - At first pregnancy, every parent to receive
supportive coaching on successful emotional
development of child i.e. Be Child Ready - Babies in at risk families monitored in first 3
years, with family support from regular health
visitors
22Recommendations National policy
- Government should rebalance resources from the
massive costs of failure to the modest costs of
early intervention. Financial instruments are
being devised to use future savings to invest now - Nottingham as large-scale test area Early
Intervention City - National agency to assess and hallmark best
policies
23THE EARLY INTERVENTION PACKAGE
- The aim of the Early Intervention package is to
tackle deprivation by breaking intergenerational
underachievement enabling every child to be
school ready, work ready, life ready, and child
ready. - This is done by supplying early interventions to
ensure the pre-requisite personal and social
skills are in place at each stage. - This is more effective and low cost than paying
massive financial and social costs later and
only ever partially successful remedial action.
- There is strong political support for this
concept at national and local level, including
Nottingham being Early Intervention City. - Officials and officers are now working to propose
a series of practical interventions that can be
endorsed across the Partnership. - A 20 YEAR CRIME PREVENTION
PROGRAMME.
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25Ten steps in ten years
- 1.  Mother Care Pregnancy Centres as in Sweden,
systematic pre-natal help, plus begin
identification and tracking of families and
individuals who needs early intervention - and/or
- Intensive health visiting support to young
mums from conception to 2 years old to Nottm
specifications - and/or
- Â The Sunderland (Nottingham?) Infant
programme for 0-3 months, mums and babies
videoed and coached to get best attunement and
interaction Per Svenson - 2. Sure Start existing well established
pre-school family intervention - 3.  Roots of Empathy empathy reduces crime,
especially violent crime. Here, a couple let a
class adopt their baby - 4.  SEAL existing primary school Social and
Emotional Aspects of Learning, teaches social
skills to enable personal and academic growth - Incredible Years comprises three linked
programmes for children, teachers, and parents,
preventing and treating behavioural conduct
problems among children aged 2-8 years and
increasing their social competence - (continues)
26- and/ or
-
- Triple P (Positive Parenting Programme) widely
used Australian system that aims to provide
guidance for parents of primary school age
children on parenting skills in order to promote
good behavioural and emotional adjustment. - 6.  Mentoring no widespread program yet, but
could especially involve male role models for
young boys. Big Brothers/Sisters has a 100 year
track record in the US - 7.  Witnessing Domestic Violence early
intervention to prevent trauma and long standing
impacts - 8.  Secondary SEAL Pre-parenting skills. To
extend emotional literacy in teenagers to an
understanding of -developing and sustaining
relationships in current and future families, to
prevent family breakdown, understanding what it
means to have children, and be able to thrive in
social and work situations. - and/or
- Teens and Toddlers 20 weeks, one to one
contact between each teenager and a small child
who they mentor - 9.Parenting Skills how to make choices about
having children how to raise a fully capable
child - 10.First Steps in Parenting conception onwards
program, starts in pregnancy and tackles
emotional issues which will arise in new families
Mel Parr
27What next for us?
- A serious and open dialogue is taking place
across the partnership and reports will go to the
CYP Partnership and then to the One Nottingham
Board.Edwina Grant, Chief Officer of the Children
and Young Peoples Partnership, is the accountable
officer within the One Nottingham structure,
responsible locally for synthesising a draft
policy paper. - National support comes from the Joint
Local/National Steering Group on Early
Intervention in Nottingham made up of local
partnership officers and national departments
officials. It met in August 2007. - On October 5th Local Partners brainstorm to
recommend to One Nottingham and Ministers a
package, arrange initial funding with One
Nottingham, and local and national mainstream
funding thereafter. - Measures will need to be rigorously assessed and
filtered (for cost, evidence base, local
applicability and duplication of existing
programmes) In time this should be done by a UK
National Assessment body, comparable to the
Centre for the Study and Prevention of Violence
at the University of Colorado.
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