The earliest years of a child’s life matter.
It’s a crucial time for their learning and development, as they explore and gain skills to enable them to understand the people and world around them.
A quality home learning environment, and the way parents and carers support their children at home, helps to give them the best start in life.
But, financial hardship and rising rates of poverty across the UK, mean that too many families are struggling to provide enough food or basic household items that are needed to support their children’s learning and development.
Parents and carers want to do the best for their children, but we know poverty puts tremendous pressure on families and impacts on the experiences of their children. An estimated 4.2 million (or nearly 3 in 10) children in the UK now live in poverty. A daily struggle to make ends meet means it’s harder for families to provide the basics that would help their children learn at home, like books and toys. And it doesn’t only impact them materially: poverty also limits parental capacity and time to give children playful and nurturing experiences at home.
Our Early Years Grants programme aims to give every child the best start in life by:
- reducing the impact of material deprivation on families’ lives
- building an understanding of the effective ways that support parents to play and learn with their children at home