Early Intervention is an approach which offers a real opportunity to make lasting improvements in the lives of children, to forestall many persistent social problems and end their transmission from one generation to the next, and to make long-term savings in public spending. It covers a range of tried and tested policies for the first three years of children's lives to give them the essential social and emotional security they need for the rest of their lives. Yet the provision of successful evidence-based Early Intervention programmes remains persistently patchy, and dogged by institutional and financial obstacles. In consequence, there remains an overwhelming bias in favour of existing policies of late intervention at a time when social problems are well-established. The report outlines crucial areas of brain development where the first three years see 80 per cent of the brain developed. Chapters 3 and 4 explore the social and economic benefits of Early Intervention. Chapter 5 explores the key themes of the first half of the report in the context of current policy and practice. The most effective Early Intervention Programmes and their cost effectiveness are covered in Chapter 6. It lists 80 programmes which fulfil this criteria, with 19 in the top category. Chapter 7 acknowledges the importance of local rather than central institutions in providing the best universal and targeted services. Finally, the prime recommendation of this report is the creation of a new, independent Early Intervention Foundation to encourage progress in this area.