INSPIRE: Identify family Needs for Support, Prevention, & rIsk Reduction

Only 65.2% of children in England are ready for school, achieving a good level of development at the end of their reception year (from gov.uk education statistics for academic year 2021/22). Lower proportions of boys, children born in the summer, children with a first language other than English, and children eligible for free school meals are ready for school, by this measure. Low school readiness is associated with lower educational attainment, which in turn limits life chances and may drive inequalities.
The health visiting system in England aims to identify health needs, including early learning and development, as early as possible and improve health and wellbeing. We propose to use the Born in Bradford study data to understand factors associated with low school readiness that are measured by or available to health visiting teams, including gender, season of birth, English as an additional language, and financial pressure.
Following this, we intend to work with a local health visiting team in South London. With them, we plan to investigate whether better use of health visiting data could help to accurately identify children and families who could benefit from additional support, link families with support, and improve school readiness.