Society pays a huge price for waiting until children have been harmed before rushing in to 'clean up the mess'.

That is the central conclusion of what is best described as a manifesto published by a new coalition of charities individuals and organisations. The report Social Justice Begins With Babies has been agreed by members of the playfully named Putting the Baby IN the Bath Water coalition (BinB), which formed last year.

Remarkable for the number of different people and groups involved, BinB has come together around a simple concept - that the first 1001 days of a person's life are critical to future development and these should be a much bigger priority for government and wider society.

Among the document's 103 supporters are the children's commissioner Tam Baillie, Scotland's former chief social work advisor Professor Alexis Jay, Glasgow's director of Public Health Linda de Caestecker, and former police chief John Carnochan. Organisational members of BinB include six royal colleges of medicine, and dozens of charities.

Politicians are vocal about the need for early intervention, and starting well in the early years, but the report argues much more can be done to put resources behind the good intentions.

Attention has centred on the report's demand that the law be changed to remove the current possibility that someone who hits a baby can use the defence that it was "justifiable assault" in Scots law. In relation to a baby, there can be no such thing, according to the report's authors.

But the message of the report is about more than just one proposal. While welcoming plans for 500 additional health visitors, for instance, it suggests much more focus is needed on what they do and how they are trained. A duty on councils to prioritise prevention in all children's services plans needs to be better known and the consequences of genuinely acting on that policy could be very far-reaching, its authors argue.

Instead of talking about closing opportunity gaps and tackling health inequalities, a focus on babies would be a radical move towards ensuring those gaps never open up in the first place, they say.

This isn't just wishful thinking, either. The report cites "overwhelming international evidence" that properly resourced early intervention works - and in financial terms too. Dr Jonathan Delafield-Butt, Strathclyde University, said: "These actions will save money and improve lives. Everyone wins."

Will this just be another report which is sent to ministers then gathers dust on a shelf? That's unlikely, given BinB's backers who explicitly state that members do not intend to go away.

Anne Houston OBE, and recently retired head of Children 1st, is optimistic: "It is easy to read and easy to support emotionally, but the challenge remains in making it happen for Scotland's babies," she says. "The fact so many organisations and individuals are behind its existence is testimony itself."