About Early Home Learning Matters

The Family and Parenting Institute is the leading centre of expertise on families and parenting in the UK. Families, in all their diversity, form the basis of our society and the foundation for the future. Our mission is to support them in bringing up children.

Our aim is the wellbeing of children and families and to achieve this, we carry out research and policy work to find out what matters to families and parents. We develop ideas to improve the services families use and to improve the environment in which children grow up. We work to inform policymakers and public debate and we develop practical resources for people working with families.

The Family and Parenting Institute was funded by the DCSF to create this website and the associated handbook. It is now well evidenced that the home learning environment is more influential in determining children's outcomes than ability, family background or material circumstances.

The earliest years (birth to three) of a child's life are the years in which the brain develops most. This development is significantly affected both by a child's relationships with caregivers and the activities and opportunities they have inside and outside the home during these crucial three years.

Early Home Learning Matters focuses on effective ways of helping children achieve their potential, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is for anyone working with parents of children from birth to five years of age, or developing early years services – as well as for parents or anyone involved in bringing up children. It brings together key messages from research, practice and parents themselves to provide key information that will help you:

• understand the evidence about brain development and the vital role of parents, both fathers and mothers

• plan effective services to support early learning and development at home

• reach and include vulnerable families to overcome intergenerational cycles of disadvantage

• enable parents to gain the understanding, skills and confidence they need to help their children flourish.

The following four sites also provide very valuable information and are referred to throughout Early Home Learning Matters:

www.peal.org.uk/
PEAL is a good practice framework to support early years settings to meet the requirements to work in partnership with parents to enhance children's learning and development outlined in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Children's Centre Practice Guidance.

nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/earlyyears/eyfs
This is the website for the Early Years Foundation Stage and provides a coherent and flexible approach to care and learning by bringing together: Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (2000), the Birth to Three Matters (2002) framework and the National Standards for Under 8s Daycare and Childminding (2003).

www.c4eo.org.uk/themes/earlyyears/
The Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services (C4EO) identifies and coordinates local, regional and national evidence of 'what works', creating a single and comprehensive picture of effective practice in delivering children's services.

www.familyandparenting.org/ELPP
Coordinated by the Family and Parenting Institute, the Early Learning Partnerships Project (ELPP) involved a total of nine charities and their partners working together to see how early play-based learning for one to three years olds can best be encouraged in the home. This project was based in the voluntary and community sector and provided much of the action research, learning and examples for Early Home Learning Matters.