Cross-party agreement in Westminster for early intervention

If this is not an admission that the care system is hard on children, I don`t know what is.

Mr Wanless, head of the NSPCC, thinks early intervention is part of the answer but bases his theory on debunked brain science. It does not matter how many times this theory is knocked down it keeps resurfacing.

"The 1001 Critical Days Manifesto takes its title from the period of conception to age 2 when a baby's brain is developing fastest and he or she is most susceptible to forming strong bonds of attachment with a primary carer. This period has a lasting impact and certainly sets a child up for the best start to life, in school and into adulthood."

"Following its relaunch in Parliament, a record number of MPs from all sides of the House have put their names in support of adopting it as Government policy across a number of health-led departments."

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/fighting-for-childhood/news-opinion/1001-critical-days-manifesto-to-help-prevent-child-abuse/

Dr Jan Macvarish in Spiked: 

"As the MPs spoke of the need for ‘secure attachments’ between parents and children, it was hard not to think that the real attachment anxiety emanates from the funding-hungry third sector, desperate to suck on the teat of the state. And when the manifesto claims that a child’s life from birth to the age of two represents a ‘critical window of opportunity’ when parents are ‘especially receptive to offers of advice and support’, it seems that this is a window through which numerous social entrepreneurs, self-styled as parenting experts, would love to get paid by the taxpayer..."

"What has been called the First Three Years Movement in the US is a campaign designed from the outset to challenge what was called the ‘family bubble’ – the idea that the early years of a child’s life are primarily the business of parents. Using ‘brain claims’ as ‘killer facts’ to make their case, the latest advocates of early intervention seek to avoid a political or moral argument about the rights of families and the limits of the state."

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-state-is-bad-for-your-baby/17743#.VoNcZMvnnIU 

 See also The myth of the first three years revisited