ABSTRACT
The findings and recommendations of the Marmot Review are structured on the framework of the ‘Life Course’. Fundamental to this is that the consequences of social, psychological, economic and environmental influences accumulate through life’s phases to have a combined impact. The evidence from the Review, however, is that it can be the impact of what happens in the Early Years that ‘casts the longest shadow’. The effects can either be:
Protective — increasing esteem; life skills; resilience and behaviours
Hazardous — destroying self-regard; undermining social skills and ability to learn; creating the conditions for mental and physical ill health. (Marmot Review 2010: 40)
