As the first head of Sure Start I know low-income families face severe challenges. Yet the government review overlooks this
I welcome MP Andrea Leadsom’s proposals to help parents and young children, announced on Thursday. For some years, the government has been largely silent on support for families: the expansion of free childcare has largely been about allowing women to work, not about improving prospects for children.
In 1999 I became the first director of the Sure Start unit, and shortly afterwards we began distributing funds to local areas. But during the austerity era, local authority funding cuts led to massive closures of Sure Start children’s centres. Many that remain open are a shadow of their former selves: open only a few days a week, with some only offering services to targeted families judged to be in need of specialist support.
