Purnima Tanuku: Helping our disadvantaged youngsters is a wise investment

STUDIES show early intervention – making sure young children receive the sort of support and learning opportunities they need – can potentially save the taxpayer billions, with children avoiding youth custody and prison in later life.

Children from deprived backgrounds can face a host of disadvantages which affect them throughout life, including their attainment at school. And it is not only about the early education that children access – nurseries also help children to develop social skills and support families more widely, for example encouraging the right approach to a healthy lifestyle.

In times of recession, it is right to look at putting more money here. More workless households mean greater risk of children living in poverty and starting life at a disadvantage. There is a whole host of evidence that demonstrates children from poorer backgrounds benefit more than children from better-off families, from high-quality care and early learning.

While recognition of the importance of helping children to prepare for life from the youngest age is welcomed, if it becomes a national programme it will need to be properly funded.

Across Scotland, there are many families who would gain so much from the type of support that Labour leader Iain Gray has seen at a Glasgow nursery. It is also important to involve childcarers from all sectors if a national initiative is announced by any political party.

Nurseries in the private and voluntary sectors are well placed to offer the right support for disadvantaged families, and with the right funding can help children to gain a fair start in life.

Early intervention can bring its own challenges. Families may not have experiences of using services, and may be hesitant or unwilling to see what is on offer. Here, too, private and voluntary nurseries can help. They are often rooted in their communities, set up by individuals from the local area and staffed by people who have grown up in that town.

NDNA Scotland hopes now Scottish Labour has witnessed first-hand the benefits attending nursery earlier can offer, it will support investment in this area as part of its party manifesto, for example, by backing a free pre-school scheme for two-year-olds.

The recession means that all political parties are looking to spend more wisely. Early intervention is one of the wisest investments of them all.

• Purnima Tanuku is chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association .