Duncan Selbie's Friday message: 17 May 2013
Weekly message from the Chief Executive of Public Health England.
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New developments in neuroscience have confirmed that children’s brain development and architecture is profoundly affected by their experiences in early life. Maternal depression, poor general health, and living in poverty in a workless household all combine to have a toxic impact on the life chances of our children. Trouble is on the way big time for these children before they have barely drawn breath, yet collectively we have the knowledge, the evidence and the experience to intervene early enough to divert the coming misery and distress, as we heard on Wednesday at our first conference on Early Intervention and Public Health held in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) – a charity with cross-party support founded by Graham Allen MP – and addressed by the Secretary of State.