SKILLS FOR LIFE AND WORK!

This review by the Early Intervention Foundation looks at the evidence of links between social and emotional skills in children and how they fare as adults.

The report makes it very clear that social and emotional skills play a fundamental role in shaping life chances of children and young people and the nature of their adult lives. They are important both for individuals, for society and in tackling intergenerational patterns of inequality and disadvantage. It is also clear that there are many things that schools can do that have an effect on these capabilities. There are programmes, like the Cutlers' 'Better Learners, Better Workers' approach, that have been shown in replicated, quality evaluations to have an impact on skills, behaviour and character traits. But the current nature of provision in our schools is wide-ranging and variable. There are no indicators of performance in broad use and there is no clear national framework of assessment. There are also big gaps in advice for schools on what works. Given the reduction in funding in this area, the case for building a robust and broad-based pool of evidence about what works is stronger than ever; both to ensure that programmes are of the highest quality and to strengthen the case for investment in what works from a range of sources.