Sustainability

It is important to accept that making a difference takes time and sustainable services and on-going, reliable funding are required.

C4EO Progress Map: Improving children's attainment through a better quality of family-based support for early learning

 

In many ways it goes without saying that interventions and services need to be offered long enough for them to make a difference.(HM Treasury 1998, Moran et al 2004, Springate et al 2008)

Sustainable, long-term investment in work with parents is particularly vital when working with the most vulnerable families. ELPP (Early Learning Partnerships Project 2006-2008) evaluators found that some service providers were unwilling to engage with the most socially excluded families because they did not want to let them down once funding ceased.

Short-term funding also impacts on service providers' ability to set up effective referral links and partnerships with other agencies, adversely affecting the quality and accessiblity of support to parents.

Key messages for sustainability

  • Institutional and organisational embedding of sustainable long-term investment in prevention is a pre-requisite for effective early home learning services.
  • Coherent authority-wide strategies for sustainable early home learning services need to consider:

o whether support should be universal or targeted
o what level and kind of support is appropriate
o the long-term resources available to deliver this support.

 

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Last updated: 3rd December 2009 at 02:12:31