Early Years
One of the most effective ways to tackle inequality is to provide high quality support to parents and provide excellent early years child care. The pandemic has been a really challenging time for new parents with increased isolation and few opportunities for babies to socialise with each other. Early years services are so often the entry point into crucial holistic support. Parents of children with a disability tell us that early years support is often hard to access.
We will
- Reinvest in Children’s Centre services; creating a ‘hub and spoke model’, strengthening outreach but also ensuring babies, toddlers and parents can come together in a safe and welcoming environment that is designed with and for them
- Increase take-up of nursery places for 2 year olds and broaden participation of children with special educational needs and disabilities
- Lobby government for urgent increased early years funding
- In-source services where necessary to guarantee that there are enough nursery places across the county, particularly in areas of greatest need and to plug gaps
- Work in partnership with early years providers including childminders to ensure fair distribution of funding and shared agreement of the use any Norfolk underspend for the direct benefit of children