Social Mobility, Life Chances, and the Early Years

It is widely agreed that the early years are a particularly important time for efforts to increase social mobility, because a good deal of inequality is already apparent by the time children start school, and because children's development may be less amenable to change after they enter school. But it is less clear how much policies can reduce inequality in the early years, or what policies might be most effective, given the multiple influences on development in the early years and given the complex effects of policies. In this paper, I review what we know from research about what affects development in the early years and examine the current UK policy framework in light of that research. I then make recommendations for priorities for next steps to improve social mobility and other desired outcomes in the early years and thereafter. We know a good deal from research about what quality means, and about what types of experiences are best for children. The research points to some clear next steps in early years policy. These include: extending paid parental leave to 12 months; offering a more flexible package of supports to families with children under the age of 2 or 3; providing high-quality centre-based care to 2 year olds, starting with the most disadvantaged; and providing a more integrated system of high-quality care and education for 3 to 5 year olds.Social mobility, parental leave, childcare, early years

Welfare Reforms and Child Well-Being in the US and UK

This paper examines the effects of recent welfare reforms in the US and UK on the well-being of children in low-income families, looking specifically at the effects on poverty, family expenditures, and child health and development. The paper finds some commonalities but also some notable differences. Common to both countries is a sizable reduction in child poverty, although the reduction in child poverty in the US has been less, and some families appear to have been left behind. Expenditure data also point to divergence across the two countries. In the UK, low-income families affected by the reforms are spending more money on items related to children and are more likely to own a car and a phone, while in the US, families affected by welfare reforms are primarily spending more money on items related to employment but not items for children. Finally, a common finding across countries is a relative dearth of more direct evidence on the well-being of children, and specifically how the reforms have affected child health and development. Identifying such effects remains an important topic for further research.welfare, poverty, expenditures, child well-being

Early Childhood Interventions and Outcomes (summarised in CASEreport 5, "Persistent Poverty and Lifetime Inequality")

Recent advances in brain research have provided new evidence that early experience matters and have greatly increased interest in the effects of early childhood interventions on outcomes for children. This paper reviews what is now known about the potential benefits and potential ill effects of early childhood interventions, with particular attention to evidence from the Rand study of early interventions, recent studies of the Head Start programme, and the NICHD study of early child care. The evidence shows that early childhood interventions can make a difference in improving outcomes for children. However, there are two important knowledge gaps. Not enough is known about the types of child young children in Britain are currently using, and not enough is known about what types of early childhood interventions would achieve the best outcomes for disadvantaged children in Britain.Early intervention, child care

Early years policy

We analyze the role that early years policy might play in narrowing educational attainment gaps. We begin by examining gaps in school readiness between low-, middle-, and high-income children, drawing on data from new large and nationally representative birth cohort studies in the USA and UK. We find that sizable income-related gaps in school readiness are present in both countries before children enter school and then decompose these gaps to identify the factors that account for the poorer scores of low-income children. We then consider what role early years policy could play in tackling these gaps, drawing on the best available evidence to identify promising programs

The Family Gap in Pay: Evidence from Seven Industrialised Countries

In this paper we use microdata on employment and earnings from a variety of industrialised countries to investigate the family gap in pay - the differential in hourly wages between women with children and women without children. We present results from seven countries: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Finland, and Sweden. We find that there is a good deal of variation across our sample countries in the effects of children on women's employment. We also find large differences in the effects of children on women's hourly wages even after controlling for differences between women with children and women without children in characteristics such as age and education. Among the seven countries we study here, the United Kingdom displays the largest wage penalties to children. The family gap in pay is larger in the U.K. than in other countries because of the higher propensity of U.K. mothers to work in low-paid part-time jobs but also because even among full-timers, women with children in the U.K. are lower paid relative to other women than are mothers in other countries. Why does the family gap in pay vary so much across countries? We find that the variation in the family gap in pay across countries is not primarily due to differential selection into employment or to differences in wage structure. We therefore suggest that future research should examine the impact of family policies such as maternity leave and child care on the family gap in pay.Womens earnings, effects of children on incomes

Investing in Children: What do we know? What should we do?

In 1998, a conference brought together US psychologists, economists, sociologists, demographers, political scientists, social workers, and medical doctors, to review what we know about the processes that affect child development and how we might wisely increase public and private investments in children to promote both their well-being and the productivity of the next generation. Current investments in children were examined and how they affect the development of the skills children need to succeed as adults in work, family, and society was discussed. What we have learned about childhood interventions from birth to college and what further investments in children are required, especially for disadvantaged children was reviewed. This paper summarises the findings of the conference, and we outline our views regarding a number of key investments. We conclude that there is no better way to break the cycle of poverty and inequality than to invest in children. Expanded investment in five key areas is proposed: programmes to improve the health of women of childbearing age; early childhood interventions, targeted to the most disadvantaged children; measures to raise the quality of child care and pre-school education; after-school and mentoring programmes; and programmes to raise the level of college attendance by high-ability youth from low-income families.Child development, childhood interventions, childcare, education

Rethinking the Paradigm for Child Protection

Mounting pressures on the nation's system for helping children who are abused and neglected have prompted new efforts to reform the child protective services (CPS) system to better protect children's safety. As this article explains, current reform efforts are focusing on the "front end" of the system, in which reports of abuse and neglect are screened and investigated, and caseworkers recommend whether and when to close a case, provide in-home services, or remove a child from a home. This article discusses the problems of the CPS system that are currently receiving attention, and it closely examines one proposal for reform—the community-based partnership for child protection. This approach emphasizes targeting investigations by CPS toward only high-risk families, building collaborative community networks that can serve lower-risk families, and providing a differentiated response to both high- and low-risk families that is tailored to each family's situation. Early experiences implementing these ideas in Missouri, Florida, and Iowa illustrate the promise and challenges of reform

Family and medical leave: evidence from the 2000 surveys

Seven years after the Family and Medical Leave Act, more employees are taking leave for family or medical reasons, and fewer report that they need leave, but are unable to take it; many employers offer leave over and above that required by the Act, and most report no adverse effects on their business