Dr Bruce Perry speaks to the Early Intervention Foundation

In the following article Dr Bruce Perry, a US psychiatrist, made an extraordinary statement: "In around 100 years time, multi-generational "problem" families will constitute a quarter of the population, sucking in billions of "our" tax dollars and placing "an ungodly burden" on our children and grandchildren." Since poor families have been producing children since time immemorial he does not explain the significance of the next 100 years. If we are to believe his prediction then a quarter of the population will have damaged brains leading to mental illness and criminality amongst other things.

His grim prediction came at the end of a recent presentation in London designed to persuade policymakers to intervene early in problem families. Reach their children early, through parenting classes and other "individualised intervention plans", before their brains are irrevocably hardwired – and you not merely rescue the child from disaster but you, the taxpayer, will save billions in social security payments. "It's a big economic bang for your buck".

Perry's vivid style is to stitch together data, shocking anecdotes and emotive imagery.. "To neglect them [children] is to murder them." If we don't intervene early, he warned, we will hit an "unsustainable tipping point", unable to break the cycle by which hopeless parents spawn unloved children prone to educational failure, obesity, mental illness and criminality, before those children themselves become hopeless parents, accelerating societal and financial meltdown.

Perry's presentation launched a series of science lectures organised by the Early Intervention Foundation. In the audience of academics, philanthropists, campaigners and politicians was the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, whose Centre for Social Justice was an early adopter of Perry's work in the UK. Duncan Smith introduced the lecture by describing Perry as "an inspirational and influential figure".

During his brief visit, Perry met other senior government ministers including Francis Maude at the Cabinet Office, the prisons minister, Jeremy Wright, and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt. He also spoke with Labour's shadow education and treasury teams, and the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood...Yet despite the cross-party interest, there is deep unease about the Perry thesis: its use of neuroscience; its underplaying of poverty as a context for dysfunction; and its influence on child protection policy.

Sue White, professor of social work at the University of Birmingham, is sceptical of what she has called the "artfully packaged" neuroscience/early intervention narrative.

Examples of extreme neglect – such as the case of Malaya, or Perry's infamous brain images depicting scans of two contrasting three-year old child brains (the "normal" brain significantly larger than the brain of the child suffering "extreme neglect") – are typically taken from children who have suffered extreme institutional abuse in orphanages in eastern Europe and have virtually no predictive value in a UK context, she says. Yet such examples encourage a "policy leap from orphanage to council estate". Neuroscience is "infiltrating" child protection practice and the family courts, she says, where it has been conscripted to support "moral arguments" about state intervention in family life. The danger, she believes, is that it will lead to ill-considered "act now or never" decisions to take children into care.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/06/policymakers-neuroscience-justify-early-intervention-agenda-bruce-perry

According to its website, the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) was officially launched at 10 Downing Street on 15 April 2013, with cross-party support. It was established to champion and support the move to greater use of early intervention approaches. No doubt, invited speakers will support its cause too.

Many of the organisations backing the EIF have interests in providing the services that early interventions entail, including adoption and fostering. With recent changes in the law to make adoptions quicker and easier such a consolidated effort is an unprecendented assault on the poor.

Organisations backing The Early Intervention Foundation Consortium include:
4Children
3SC
Achievement for All 3As
Action For Children
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
Barnardos
Best Beginnings
Big Issue Invest
Community Links
Family Action
Family and Parenting Institute / Daycare Trust
I Can
Impetus Trust
Institute for Public Policy Research
Local Government Association
London Early Years Foundation
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
National Association for Voluntary and Community Action
National Children’s Bureau
NCT
National Day Nurseries Association
Nesta
NSPCC
Public Health England
Save the Children
Seven Social Care
The Centre for Social Justice
The Children’s Society
The Football League Trust
Turning Point http://www.navca.org.uk/early-intervention-foundation
See also: http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Early%20interventions