UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – the UK’s national funding agency for research and innovation – has announced a £31.9m initiative ‘to transform the environments in which children learn, play and grow outside of school’.
Launched in partnership with the Department for Education, The Home Learning Environment R&I Challenge will bring together researchers, local authorities, education leaders, civil society and private sector organisations to develop new approaches to supporting families in preparing children for their school.
This will include:
- Supporting and empowering parents and carers and enhancing the wider opportunities and resources that shape children’s learning and development outside of school, identifying the approaches with the greatest potential to have impact at scale.
- Addressing the profound effects of homelessness on children’s development and educational outcomes by generating evidence and piloting targeted support that improves home learning environment in temporary accommodation.
- Helping parents and carers to support children’s play and learning at home and in their communities and finding out what works best so successful approaches can reach more families.
Researchers describe a child’s home learning environment as ‘how their parents and carers engage with their learning, the relationship between carer and child, and the books, toys and everyday resources available to them at home and in their neighbourhood environment’.
According to UKRI, ‘evidence shows these factors have a powerful influence on children’s cognitive and emotional development, as well as their longer-term educational outcomes and wellbeing’.
The initiative aims to ensure that by 2028, 75 per cent of children – as many as 40,000 under-fives – secure a good level of early years development and are ready to thrive at school.
Science minister Lord Vallance said, ‘Every child deserves the best start in life, whatever their background. By bringing talented researchers together with local authorities, education leaders and beyond, we will drive evidence-led innovation that means many more children are given the solid foundation of being school-ready.
‘From empowering parents and communities to improving learning in temporary accommodation, this challenge – backed by more than £30m from Government – will come up with new approaches to break down barriers and help many more children to fulfil their potential.’
In the coming weeks, UKRI will be launching two funding opportunities inviting organisations to develop and evaluate innovations and interventions that strengthen fathers’ engagement in their children’s lives and to test and scale models of wraparound support to improve development and educational outcomes for children experiencing homelessness.
