Early Years

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of a child’s early years – and this is supported by a wide range of research evidence from education, health, justice and economic experts.

Improving the early years experience inScotlandis key to enabling us to address some of our most entrenched problems such as poverty, poor health, poor attainment and anti-social behaviour. The Scottish Government’s economic modelling work shows that every £1 invested in a child’s early years will generate an eventual saving of £9 for the tax payer.

Essentially, we wantScotlandto be the best place for children to grow up.

All our work with children, young people and their families is underpinned by the Getting it Right for Every Child approach – which has a child or young person’s wellbeing at its heart, and is intended as a way of making sure everyone respects children’s rights, and listens to what they have to say.

Some of the key initiatives we are working on at the moment include:
 
- National Parenting Strategy
Scotland’s first National Parenting Strategy to encourage agencies to work together to support parents and to allow them to develop their parenting skills.

- Children and Young People Bill
We recently finished consulting on this bill which will bring together earlier plans for separate legislation on children’s services and children’s rights into a single, comprehensive framework that will underpin Scottish Government ambitions to enhance the life chances of Scotland’s children and young people.

We are also committed to:

- Working to help parents, families and communities develop their own solutions to local issues.

- Supporting free play opportunities and quality play spaces.

- Providing additional early learning, childcare and parental support for looked after two year olds.

- Supporting the third sector in delivering early intervention in the early years and give vulnerable children and families acrossScotlandthe best start in life.

Have your say
Follow all the SG news and discussion about Early Years online under the hash tag #bestplacetogrowup.