Robert Brown calls for more support for children

12.00.00am GMT Fri 6th Feb 2009

A call has been made by Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown for better support for children in their earliest years, and particularly more opportunities for children's play. Mr. Brown was speaking in a debate in the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Government's Early Years' Framework. He also argued that there was an urgent need for more foster parents to be recruited to help give some children a better start in life.

Robert Brown said:

"I welcome the Scottish Government's Early Years' Framework which builds on the work of the previous Government in expanding nursery provision to all 3 and 4 year olds, and a range of innovative projects including Sure Start, nurture classes and healthier school meals.

However it is time to have a more coherent framework of early years' care because this is such an important stage for children's development.

It is right to support moves to increase parents' capacity by providing support but the stark reality is that some parents-because of heavy drug or alcohol addictions or whatever-cannot offer their children a safe existence or even minimal positive life experiences. A major campaign should be undertaken to recruit more foster parents, as they often provide better life chances for such children.

Play opportunities are vital. Play and communication are closely linked. In some areas, half of all children who start school have communication difficulties, which sometimes result from a lack of nurturing or a lack of play and engagement with other people and often from the poverty of their family experience. I note that £235 million over three years is attached to the English play strategy, although that strategy was produced slightly earlier, when the financial circumstances were more auspicious.

Play does not just involve outdoor play areas. It involves parents knowing how to stimulate and play positively with their babies and toddlers. It concerns playgroups and play leaders, which are not mentioned much in the document, and staffed play centres such as that in Reidvale in Glasgow's east end. Play can be used to overcome communication issues before they become a school-long and lifelong impediment; the negative impact of such issues develops if they are not tackled. The use of play-based learning in early primary school is a concept that Liberal Democrats have long fostered and which I am pleased to see in the paper.

More work is needed on play. I hope that the Government will commit to producing a dedicated national play strategy, or at least to developing the play part of the early years framework through a body such as a National Forum on Play."