Identifying and addressing EBD in the early years

In England, policy developments under the government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ (DfES 2004) strategy encouraged interventions to reduce disadvantage in childhood and to improve life chances (Kiernan and Mensah 2009). Universal and specialist services were focused on supporting and promoting emotional and behavioural development to improve attainment (Maxwell et al. 2008). In other UK countries there has been a similar policy shift towards early preventative approaches and away from ‘crisis intervention’, for example, the Scottish Early Years Framework (Scottish Government 2008).