The introduction of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015 merged two lines of international policy on inclusive education -disability and educational development- in Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) (Spandagou, 2018). SDG 4 has a specific target (4.2) on early childhood education; "By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education". Early intervention is part of the promise of inclusion promoted in SDGs. Early intervention is deceptively simple. As an umbrella term, it refers to services that promote the optimal development of children. It is a specialised, multidisciplinary field that provides targeted and individualised support to specific groups of young children and their families. When starting to examine to whom, how, and in what context early intervention is offered, its complexity becomes apparent. 

Early intervention has a long history in the human rights agenda as it is recognised as a right for children with disability in the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) (United Nations, 1989) and the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) (United Nations, 2006). The right to early intervention is referred to in several articles of the CRPD, but the more prominent one is article 25 on Health. Where early intervention sits in the complex nexus of health, social services, and early childhood education is important. This positioning and its possibilities entail tensions that often are ignored. These tensions have implications for the efforts for an inclusive education system. Indicatively, early intervention is essential for supporting access to education but depending on how it is provided it may divert resources away from inclusive education. Beyond the individual benefits of early intervention, ultimately, the question is to what extent early intervention is an intentional driver of the "process of system reform" required for inclusive education according to CRPD's General comment No. 4 (2016) Article 24: Right to inclusive education. This question is even more essential within the competing demands of the Sustainable Development Goals. While the 17 SDGs' intention is to promote an inclusive response across different goals, the reality is that what is measured through the 169 targets and 232 unique indicators directs attention to reform.

This paper explores how early intervention is constructed and presented within this global initiative. SDGs are at the softest end of international law, but their socialisation within and across countries have widespread implications for how inclusive education is defined. The presentation looks at the SDG documentation, including the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) submitted by members states. Since 2016, 178 countries have presented at least one VNR, and 171 reports available in English were identified. The study involves content analysis of these reviews and other related sources. The analysis explores the extent that initiatives have an inclusive education dimension and the populations identified as requiring early intervention. Finally, the scale and focus of initiatives of countries across income levels are explored. The tensions between early childhood education, health, and social services in the provision of early intervention are discussed. For many families and children around the globe, early intervention is the promise of future inclusion. The potential of early intervention in facilitating future inclusion often diverts from a discussion of whether it constitutes an inclusive experience. 

The study has two parts. The first part is an analysis of how early intervention is presented in the relevant treaties and mainly CRC and CRPD, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A series of General comments of the CRC and CRPD and in particular CRC’s General Comments No 1 Article 29 (1): The aims of education, No. 5 (2005) Implementing child rights in early childhood, and No. 9 (2006) The rights of children with disabilities, and CRPD’s General comment No. 4 (2016) Article 24: Right to inclusive education outline the right to early intervention from an education perspective. Comprehensive, inclusive, strength-based, with a whole-person approach, are principles of the early intervention right. This articulation is expanded within the childhood development direction of SDGs. The document analysis of this part of the study provides a framework to map the efforts of individual countries reporting in Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). The second part of the study examines how early intervention is reported in 171 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) available in English covering the period 2016-2021. Extensive search within the documents using keywords (e.g., including childhood development, early intervention, early childhood, inclusive education, health, nutrition, disability, etc) was initially undertaken. The range of references and the complexity of relationships between the searched terms required close reading of the sources. Software-assisted identification was followed by manual search and cross-referring within each document. The questions explored are: What strategies, initiatives, services, and programs are identified as early intervention? Who are the groups receiving early intervention? How and to what extent are early intervention initiatives part of a broader reform agenda in childhood development, particularly in inclusive education?

The analysis is currently underway. As far as the first part is concerned, the articulation of early intervention in the relevant treaties provides a rights-based framework for action. However, the tensions between universal and individual systems of provision are evident. While the relevant treaties move away from emphasising risk to a strengths-based approach, the role of risk in the SDG agenda is more complex. Regarding the preliminary analysis of the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), childhood development is the primary driver of policy and programs, with (inclusive) education in the early years being part of it. Early intervention references are limited to distinct programs for children and/or their families. Disability is predominant in these programs. Overall, the tension identified in the location of early intervention in health, education and social services, is reproduced in the reports. The potential of early intervention in the reports is both recognised and underutilised with implications for inclusion.

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