Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2023
It is a great privilege to open the debate on our early childhood development transformational change programme. I believe that it will create the opportunity and momentum for us to come together to help build the healthier, fairer and more successful nation that we want to see, by creating the conditions for future generations to thrive. Children get only one chance at childhood, so we must ensure that, whether we are parents, practitioners or politicians, we do what we can to get it right for every child.
There is nothing more important than giving our children the best start in life. The period of a child’s life from before they are born and through the very early years is a unique and critically important period of development. It is when lives are shaped, laying the foundations for future health and wellbeing. As a nation, we must collectively do all that we can to support, help and nurture their growth. The World Health Organization is clear that all children need nurturing care during that early period. That means that the care that they get needs to be sensitive and responsive to their needs, providing the right nutrition and opportunities to play, learn and grow up healthy and safe from all types of harm.
That is why, in this year’s programme for government, we included a clear commitment to continue to invest in primary prevention from pre-birth through the earliest years, to ensure that children have the nurturing care that they need to improve their outcomes, and to provide enhanced support for speech and language development during the critical window in the early years.