Is investing in the early years cost-effective?

Money spent in the early years is cost-effective because it saves a lot more money later, when efforts to repair damage done early in life are not only costly, but have less chance of being effective. It is far better to teach a child how to regulate emotions like hurt and anger when the child is one or two or three years old, than to try to do so when the person is a sixteen-year-old in juvenile detention for a violent response to a conflict.

While it is never too late to help a child, young person or family in trouble, how we interact with our children sets up deep patterns that influence the rest of their lives. Investing in early childhood is much more effective than investing in later development when patterns have been established and pays off to society with happier, law-abiding and more productive citizens. Yet we leave this foundational time of development to take care of itself: we spend a tiny fraction of our education and health dollar on supporting the very time that is crucial to human development and a highly productive society.

Benefits that research has demonstrated from high quality early intervention programs

• reduced welfare expenditure Improved school performance
• reduced contact with the juvenile justice system. Increased up-take of preventive health measures (such as immunisation)
• some reduction in acute health service utilisation such as emergency room services and hospital admissions for injuries
• reduced notifications of child abuse and neglect
• higher employment and skill levels in mothers

In fact, long-term studies show that these benefits last into adult life. They are measured by:

• reduced school drop-out rates
• lower incidence of teenage pregnancy
• increased work-force participation
• reduced criminality

The benefits of prevention and early intervention are particularly apparent for disadvantaged families – helping both the adults and the children.

Can we afford NOT to invest in providing the very best support for families in the early years of children’s lives, including the prenatal period?

• If we do invest in supporting families in the early years, we can expect to build a society that is healthier, happier, realises more of the potential of its members, and, moreover, is more productive.
• This society is more likely to avoid negative experiences like school failure, dropping out, unwanted pregnancy, unemployment, and being in jail.

NIFTeY exists to keep this evidence before the community, make new evidence available to policy makers, practitioners and families and to advocate for early interventions that are evidence-based and effective.

NIFTeY achieves this through contact with policy makers, academics and practitioners and by dissemination through NIFTeY-List.

To join the NIFTeY family and take part in this vital exchange of information, subscribe to NIFTeY-List. There is no subscription or charge.

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