Early intervention to make a real difference in education policy 

Our early intervention work shows that timely support to families can make a real difference for children and young people. Our practitioners help families overcome barriers and prevent issues from escalating, and are a key component to achieving the Government’s Opportunity Mission to break down barriers for every child. 

Rachael Kenningham, Head of Policy at School-Home Support explained our ask to the government: introduce and improve a whole family support approach in education policy.

Mile in My shoes Exhibition

Daniel Hinnigan, School-Home practitioner, had the chance to speak to Minister of State for Work and Pensions, Stephen Timms, about the impacts of child poverty that he encounters as a family support practitioner. Daniel brings firsthand insight into how poverty affects children and families daily.

Daniel’s experience was also part of the ‘Mile in My Shoes’ exhibition, an interactive space where visitors could step into Daniel’s world by wearing his shoes and listening to an audio of him talking about his work supporting children and families in need  to overcome barriers to education and build resilience for the future. 

The exhibition was organised by the Empathy Museum and Health Equals.

Key takeaways from the Labour Party Conference on whole family support in education policy

Mission-driven government: A key focus was how the Government’s missions can promote joined-up approaches. Ex-Permanent Secretary Moira Wallace addressed our question on mission-based delivery regarding the school attendance crisis, highlighting it as a serious issue requiring urgent solutions. She advocated for a mission-driven approach to foster cross-departmental cooperation and budgets for tackling the attendance crisis which we welcome.

Shift from crisis to early intervention:  Many agreed with our conference message: the need to transition from crisis-level responses to proactive, coordinated services for children and families.  Promisingly, Catherine McKinnell outlined that preventive care is key, and Bridget Phillipson gave an encouraging response to our question about early intervention, recognising the need to move from crisis level spending on childrens’ services and the need to invest more in early intervention family support which is in line with our recommendation for family support services.

More discussion on root causes of low school attendance:  Campaigner Terri White shared a heartfelt account of her experiences growing up in poverty and its lasting impacts. Secretary of State Stephen Timms emphasised that poverty is worsening, with 4.2 million children living in poverty. School- Home Support is supporting the End Child Poverty Coalition campaign to end the two-child limit on universal credit and will be making a submission to the Government’s Child Poverty Task Force highlighting the need for to get money and support to families to tackle barriers to education and opportunities

Inadequate housing:  SHS research shows that poor housing remains a key barrier to good school attendance. and we were delighted to have such a passionate response from Flo Eshalomi MP, Chair of the Housing Select Committee to our question about  the impact of poor housing on school attendance.

We also see high numbers of unsupported, undiagnosed SEND cases across our caseloads of absentees, and we hope to see plans for an effective reform soon. We’ll be sharing SHS insights with Government as proposals emerge,

Make school enjoyable to increase attendance: Rather than focusing solely on attendance statistics, discussions centred on making schools enjoyable again to encourage attendance. Building student wellbeing was emphasised, with Jess Asasto MP advocating for mental health support teams to implement a whole school approach to student wellbeing.  But it’s not just children that need to be happy at school: teachers also need to feel supported and trusted.

Key takeaways from the Conservative Party Conference on whole family support in education policy

Schools need support: Schools have become an emergency, frontline service and the expectations of schools outstrip their capacity. To get schools back to doing what is important, there needs to be more investment in support around schools. This aligns with School-Home Support’s vision that we laid out in the route map that we need schools to be supportive as well as supported to give children a good education. Jane Peckham highlighted that schools can’t be expected to solve all the problems itself, and most children miss school because of poverty and not because they don’t want to attend. Nick H from the Sutton Trust noted that the funding formula is not supporting opportunities for all young people.

Funding early years: Many speakers, including Conservative MPs such as Patrick Spencer MP, made the case for more funding in early years, which has the best outcomes. Some suggested that we should rebalance funding to move away from secondary schools and colleges and refocus it on nurseries and primary schools.
Supporting families: Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza called for viewing policies through a ‘family lens’ and the need for providing families more support. Some suggestions for supporting families included frontloaded child benefit, changing the tax system to benefit families, and introduce a ‘child loan’ system similar to the student loan where it is paid back once earnings are above a certain threshold.

Value of childhood: Among other speakers, Rachel de Souza was very strong on the need for the country to prioritise childhood and centre its policies around children. She also outlined that there 440 children in youth custody in the UK, whereas in Norway it is less than 10.

Our Recommendations to the Government on whole family support in education policy

It’s clear that the government and children’s charities are passionate in their ambition to eradicate child poverty and give opportunity to all. Bridget Phillipson made clear the government’s ambition to ensure one’s background is not a barrier for their future success, and Liz Kendall emphasised the vital role of children’s charities in driving change. 

And we are beginning to see evidence of this ambition: breakfast clubs are being rolled out, a Children’s Wellbeing Bill is on the cards, and the new Child Poverty Taskforce will be publishing their strategy in Spring. But as David Robinson from NIHR said, we already know what will be on that strategy. The work needs to start now.

The direction of travel is positive, but we are still in urgent need of new policies and investments that speak to the scale of the crisis children and young people are facing. Across the panels we attended, a common refrain emerged: “We know the problems. We all agree on the problems. They’re getting worse. But, with public finances tight, how do we make real change happen?” 

In July, we proposed a route map for the Government to achieve a moonshot net-zero style goal: every child in school and ready to learn by 2050. To reach this ambitious goal, families must be supported and engaged, schools must be both supported and supportive, and local authorities must adopt a collaborative, preventative approach.