The Big Hopes Big Future programme, developed by children's charity Home-Start, is to be expanded thanks to £380,000 in funding from the Department for Education.
It follows a pilot of the programme involving more than 220 families, including 540 children, in 12 Home-Start centres in England, which was found to improve children's 'school readiness' by 25-33 per cent.
The pilot specifically targeted the most disadvantaged families. Many had chaotic lifestyles, were disabled, suffered from poor health or did not have English as their first language.
Home-Start developed the Big Hopes Big Future programme in response to findings from the Marmot Review, which revealed almost 300,000 five-year-olds do not posess the skills they need to start learning, such as being toilet trained or able to hold a pencil.
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