More Investment in Early Childhood Essential

Posted on: Wed 11 January 2012

Letter to the Editor published in the West Australian 11 January 2012

Linda Savage's opinion piece (We must invest more in early childhood years, 4th January) makes reference to to the Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman's identification of the importance of investing in the "early years of a child's life to ensure they have a sturdy physical and emotional foundation to build upon".  Ms Savage also makes reference to recent studies that show that 85% of brain development occurs between the womb and the age of three. 

Ngala, WA's leading not-for-profit provider of early parenting services for families with children up to 6 years old, received 24,500 calls last year to their Helpline and 2362 families were referred to day and overnight stay services.  Many parents express their concerns that the contact and availability of child health services often does not adequately support them through the first critical years in their babies development. 

Ngala recognises that what happens in the cruicial first years has a profound effect on the long-term health and development outcomes for children, and that we need to provide sufficient resourcing to enable working in a preventive way with families and young children.  Increased investment in a mix of government and complementary services would avoid longer term costs in health and social interventions.

Thus, more investment in integrated and appropriately resourced early child and family services is essential if we are to ensure future West Australians reach their full potential as healthy membbers of our community. 

Ashley Reid, Chief Executive Officer Ngala

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