Written evidence submitted by Mrs Terry Lewis (CYP0010)

The Government seem to be forgetting the very young babies and the long term effects this is having on them. They will grow up to be socially backward. They won’t know how to behave around other people because they haven’t had to chance to be around other people.

I run classes for Tots from 0-4 years and when we returned to face to face classes after Lockdown one I had several babies that didn’t start crawling until after their developmental expectations. Largely due to there not being much reason to before classes were back. I had older Tots, who were on the move, scared to leave the safety of their mums arms because there were other babies around and they didn’t know how to behave around them. One of my Tots took 6 weeks to build up the courage to explore the venue. Then there are the mums with babies born during lockdown. Their mental health is having an affect on their baby’s development and mental health. They haven’t been able to access the support they need, and this is on top of them having the most bizarre pregnancies and birth stories is causing me to have very worrying chats with them.

Nursery aged children have been recognised as needing the structure and social interaction that comes with attendance. The government needs to start realising that it starts from birth.

March 2021