Is this really the best answer to poor language development at 4 yrs old?

Its unlikely that a lot of the poorer families would be able to afford Clarkes shoes.

A lot of mums have to go to work full time-especially if they want to afford to buy Clarks shoes! They get their child out of bed in the morn and drop them off at breakfast club. Then in the evening they collect them from after school club-where they have a meal-take them home and put them to bed. Not a lot of time to talk to sleepy children. Weekends are taken up with activities. Part of the cause of this is that they feel everyone must own their own home so both must work. By the time it's paid for and they have time to talk to their child, they have left home and it's too late! Thank goodness for social housing when my children were little-we were poor but at least I was home to talk to my children and look after them.

Well I worked full-time from when mine were babies Kittycat. One is an English teacher and the other is a Head of Communications. ?
I am not sure why fathers are not expected to be equally involved in talking to their children, on this thread?

A lot of fathers aren't around.

Kittikat round here it would be cheaper to buy than to pay rent! If only you could afford to save the depositIt was an active government policy to get women back into the workplace so that there would be less demand on benefits. Not sure that is working out as planned though I do believe women should be in the workplace.

We undervalue childcare. The quality and ability of those caring for babies and toddlers is very variable. In some places, that often score highly in the international education comparative tables they have very specialist , graduates running day care who understand child development including speech and language. development. Probably makes a difference in the support any children, who have a delay, get.

Indeed MissAdventure, but those that are should be equally responsible.

Absolutely agreed, Mamie

I think this would be an interesting piece of in-service training for people who work in the shoe shops. I am not sure that it deserves the publicity and press attention it has received.
It is a good idea - but not as a national strategy.

I'm not sure that wanting to buy a house instead of renting is really part of the problem Kittycat

DIL and DD both work but both have found time to read to their children (as do their fathers) and they have mortgages too.

There was some free nursery provision in Wales too, (not as much as in England) Cherrytree, and the little tots had to learn some Welsh too!

Isn't SureStart still provided in areas of deprivation? One of the criticisms previously was that, although it was supposed to be targeting disadvantaged children, many of the children attending came from advantaged backgrounds who perhaps did not need SureStart or whose parents could afford nursery provision anyway.
I only know what a younger member of my family told me about her area.

It was definitely the case here Jalima, it was children from more advantaged families not disadvantaged families

It depended on the area where the centre was based of course. Cameron's attack on Sure Start as being colonised by the middle classes may have been the case where he lived, it certainly wasn't in the very deprived areas I worked in the north west.
Middle class mothers aren't immune to post natal depression, isolation or domestic abuse are they. If Sure Start could help them through, that's got to be good for society.]
The centres I was involved with did a huge amount of work to engage fathers in their programmes, with a fair bit of success.

Mamie - you're so right about the role of father's. I'm another who worked full time during the 80's when my younger children were born. We are pioneers and to those who criticise mothers (never fathers) for working when their children are small - I wish they'd meet the young women in our daughter's friendship circle. All had 'working mothers', all made good friendships that continue to sustain them, all succeeded in school and went on to university, all now young mothers - most working part not full time because guess what, it's more accepted in their work places that young mothers return after mat leave.

Apparently, as many as 1,000 Sure Start Centres have been closed since the Conservatives/Conservative Coalition came to power. Surely these weren't all in "middle class" areas, serving middle class families? No doubt some middle class parents/carers did use them but it isn't only "working class" people who might need help with parenting.

It's all about prioritising, as another thread suggested. This government's priority has always been to protect and promote the interests of big business and to transfer public assets to private organisations which collect the profits for themselves but leave any losses to be paid by the public purse.

Eloethan, I remember Cameron standing in a tv interview, talking about how many new family centres his government planned to open.
I was (inevitably) shouting at the telly "liar, how many have you closed". Shouting at the telly/radio is the first sign you need to take the dog a walk.