Adam Ingram Minister for Children & Early YearsChildren’s Minister, Adam Ingram was in Dumfries today where he visited Lochside Children’s Service Centre. The minister also visited Selkirk to see the work of the Scottish Borders Council’s Early Years Assessment Team. Both projects support young parents and vulnerable families to give their children a good start in life.

Research shows that the quality of parenting can make a significant difference to children’s health, well being and development, as well as their future life chances. Work to encourage positive parenting forms a cornerstone of the Scottish Government’s Early Years Framework.

Projects like these offer a range support including advice on budgeting/financial management, parenting assessments, support to access other community-based resources, help with practical housekeeping issues and help with parental mental and physical health problems.

Adam Ingram said:

The early years are crucial to a child’s health, wellbeing, development and future life opportunities. By providing the right support in those crucial early years, we can help reduce the risk of poor health, poor educational outcomes and poor employment opportunities later in life and help lay the foundations for a bright, better future.

The Lochside project and Early Years Assessment Team support those efforts by giving parents access to the type of high quality, integrated support they need to give their children the best start they can. It also gives them access to a range of other help – for example financial and budgeting support, and assistance with practical household issues, to help them build better lives for themselves and their families.

I welcome the efforts of everyone involved – staff and parents alike – in helping to ensure that both these projects make a real difference to the lives of local children and their families.

Councillor Sandra McDowall, Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Education Committee, said:

One of our six top priorities is to provide a good start in life for all our children. This project shows what can be done when different services work together, making the most of expertise and resources.

One of our Council’s principles is prevention – to intervene early at key stages of people’s lives and make our region confident and resilient.

Andrew Lowe, Director of Social Work at Scottish Borders Council said:

This visit is the second the Minister has made to the Borders to see the work we do to support children and families and we are grateful for his continued interest.

We are certainly very proud of the work being done by the Early Years Assessment Team and know the tremendous difference the service makes to the lives of families in the area.