Early maths teaching can help cut crime

A report estimates that the long-term cost to the public purse of children leaving school unable to add up could be as high as £44,000 per person up to the age of 37 - or £2.4bn annually. Of this, criminal costs account for £165m, and substance abuse and teenage pregnancy accounts for £98.9m.

The report by consultants KPMG, commissioned by the educational charity Every Child a Chance Trust (ECCT), considered the long-term consequences of poor numeracy for individuals and estimated the public cost. It estimates that the cost of the government-backed early intervention Every Child Counts (ECC) programme, launched in 2007, work out at around £2,600 per pupil.

Initial research, to be published next month, suggests that such early intervention can lift around eight out of 10 of the children who receive it out of numeracy failure. Based on this evidence, the report says that every £1 spent on the ECC programme will save between £12 and £19 later on.

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