Sure Start (named Flying Start in Wales, Best Start in Scotland)[1][2] is a UK Government area-based initiative, announced in 1998 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, applying primarily in England with slightly different versions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.[3] It introduced a network of children's centres and other services to support local families with children under 5, including "health services, parenting support, early learning and childcare, and parental employment support".[4] The initiative originated from HM Treasury,[5] with the aim of "giving children the best possible start in life" through improvement of childcare, early education, health and family support, with an emphasis on outreach and community development.[6]
Launched in 1998 by Tessa Jowell, Sure Start had similarities to the much older, and similarly named, Head Start programme in the United States and is also comparable to Australia Head Start[7] and Ontario's Early Years Plan. The initiatives were subsequently bound together to form Sure Start Children's Centres, and responsibility for them was transferred to local government. Jowell subsequently commented in 2015, "I am very proud of setting up Sure Start, because the first three years of a child's life are absolutely critical in determining the chances they have subsequently."[8]
The National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS) project ran from 2001 until 2012. Initial research findings from NESS, published in 2005, suggested the impact of (the then termed) Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) was not as great as had been hoped.[9] However, by 2010, NESS could identify a significant impact on some of the outcomes set for Sure Start.[10]
The Evaluation of Children's Centres in England (ECCE) project ran from 2009 until 2015. Results concerning the impact of (the subsequently termed) Sure Start Children's Centres (SSCCs) concluded that, "Children's Centres set up to support parents of young children can improve the mental health of mothers and functioning of families but that these benefits are being eroded by cuts.".[11]
In 2019, a study conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies concluded that Sure Start reduced the numbers of people taken to hospital, and saved millions of pounds for the National Health Service.[12] Gordon Brown and other senior New Labour figures called for a "new Sure Start" in 2024[13] after a further IFS study on the programme's educational impacts found that "children who lived within a short distance (2.5 kilometres) of a Sure Start centre for their first five years performed 0.8 grades better in their GCSEs".[4][14] Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves refused to commit to expanding Sure Start in response to the report.[15]
^Berg, Viktor (16 February 2021). "What is a Sure Start Children's Centre?". daynurseries.co.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
^"Best Start Grant". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^Sure Start Case Study for Economic and Social Research Council, 2010
^ ab"The short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on educational outcomes". Institute for Fiscal Studies. 9 April 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^Glass N (1999). "Sure Start: The Development of an Early Intervention Programme for Young Children in the United Kingdom". Children & Society. 13 (4): 257–264. doi:10.1002/CHI569.
^"Sure Start". 11 May 2011.
^A Head Start for Australia: An Early Years Framework Archived 28 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine NSW Commission for Children and Young People, 26 February 2004
^O'Connor J (26 April 2015). "Tessa Jowell: 'I'm most proud of setting up Sure Start'". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
^Shaky Times for Sure Start The Guardian, 13 September 2005
^The Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on five-year-olds and their families National Evaluation of Sure Start team, November 2010
^Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference ifsnfs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Weale, Sally; Crerar, Pippa (8 April 2024). "Senior Labour figures call for 'life-transforming' Sure Start policy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^"Children living near Sure Start centres did better at GCSEs, study suggests". BBC News. 8 April 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
^"Will Labour bring back Sure Start under the Shadow Chancellor's new plans?". Channel 4 News. 9 April 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
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