87 SEVEN Sure Start grows up This part of the Sure Start story describes its change from a time- limited initiative to a permanent part of the welfare state, what in law every parent has a right to expect in their local neighbourhood for their young children. This chapter will tell three key stories in the development of Sure Start: • the impact on Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) of the merger at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) of Sure Start, Early Years Education and Childcare, and particularly the impact of the 2002 Comprehensive
This book tells the story of Sure Start, one of the flagship programmes of the last government. It tells how Sure Start was set up, the numerous changes it went through, and how it has changed the landscape of services for all young children in England. Offering insight into the key debates on services for young children, as well as how decisions are made in a highly political context, it will be of keen interest to policy academics, senior managers of public services and all those with a keen interest in developing services for young children.
Part Three The implementation of Sure Start Local Programmes
Part Four The impact of Sure Start Local Programmes
Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) was a major strategic effort by New Labour towards ending child poverty. By changing the way services were delivered to children under four and their families, through targeting and empowering highly-deprived small geographic areas, SSLPs were intended to enhance child, family and community functioning. Following 5 years of systemic research exploring the efficacy and impact of this grand experiment, this book pulls together, in a single volume, the results of the extensive National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS).
The book reviews the history of policies pertaining to child health and well being which preceded and set the stage for Sure Start. It provides insight into how SSLPs were expected to function and how they actually operated, both in terms of their strengths, weaknesses and costs. The contributors examine the nature of the communities in which these programmes were situated and how they changed over time; present the early effects of SSLPs on children and families, with evidence highlighting some small beneficial effects and some small deleterious ones and extract specific features of SSLPs that contributed to whether individual programmes benefited children and families, providing a guide for the revision of programmes and policies.
With a foreword from Naomi Eisdenstadt, former Director of the Sure Start Programme and concluding chapter by Prof. Sir Michael Rutter, member of the government’s scientific advisory board overseeing NESS, this book provides an insightful critique of SSLP policy and NESS that will be of interest to students of child development, families and communities, as well as policymakers and policy scholars, local and national providers of services to children and families and evaluation specialists.
3 The policy background to Sure Start ONE The policy background to Sure Start Edward Melhuish and Sir David Hall On May Day 1997 Labour won a landslide election victory, returning to power for the first time since 1979 with a 177-seat majority. The end of 18 years of successive Conservative governments represented an opportunity to change policies that would be seen to place the improvement of people’s lives at the centre of government strategy. On 6 May, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, enacted a policy at the forefront of macroeconomic
Part Two The local context of Sure Start Local Programmes
31 Evidence & Policy • vol 3 • no 1 • 2007 • xx-xx © The Policy Press • 2007 • ISSN 1744 2648 Key words re se ar ch Evidence licy • 2007 • 31-45 From evidence to practice: addressing health inequalities through Sure Start Joyce Halliday and Sheena Asthana English Tackling health inequalities has become a key policy objective in the UK in recent years, with inequalities in early life accorded strategic importance. The Sure Start programme has been central to this strategy. Over time, however, the early recognition given to the evidence base and the
133 Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on children and families EIGHT Impact of Sure Start Local Programmes on children and families Jay Belsky and Edward Melhuish Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) were intended to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty, school failure and social exclusion by enhancing the life chances for children less than four years of age growing up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. More importantly, they were intended to do so in a manner rather different from almost any other intervention undertaken in the western
53 Early intervention and prevention: lessons from the Sure Start programme Karen Clarke Introduction The concept of social exclusion has been central to New Labour’s social policy since its election in 1997. Shortly after its election success, the government announced the setting up of the Social Exclusion Unit, located in the Cabinet Office, working with the Number 10 Policy Unit and reporting to the Prime Minister (Levitas, 2005, p 147). The unit was staffed by co-opted members from the civil service, the police, the voluntary sector and business, and
