Yippee! Sure Start is back under a new name!

It’s great to see posters who worked in family and children’s social work posting about the positives we saw in Sure Start centres. Some of the purpose built centres included primary school, health visitors, midwives , drug alcohol mental heskth clinics, duty social worker and a library . Staff ran dads groups, baby massage, budgeting, cooking and best of all put so much work into reaching hard to reach families

Let's just hope we are as happy when the Government reforms the provision for Special Educational Needs which is on the horizon.

I don't think they will, I think they will back down.

Iam64 my "project" pre-SureStart was involved in outreach work to find out what was needed in a local area.
I confess I was deeply sceptical about it all at first and getting people to even engage with the idea was a slog... BUT... lots of us really wanted it to work because something had to change and in our patch we identified 13 (i think) things/activities etc that were needed.

Once it was going, some of us actually went along to SureStart with our isolated (and frightened) young mums, struggling dads and overwhelmed families. Little by little, SureStart drew them in and it was a delight to see confidence growing as they made new friends, learning a lot on the way and eventually needing little outside support.

Obviously you can't make people engage but you can be genuinely supportive and encouraging. I don't want to pretend it was a miracle cure but it did seem to be an instrument of change for many.
I am totally convinced it was a great way forward and supported dozens - probably hundreds of families in my area during my time working alongside it.

It was important to do quite a bit of hand-holding at first though... I do hope there will be hand-holders available this time round too - to help new people gain trust and confidence. 🤞
If we invest in our children we will undoubtedly build a better future.

Putting Children's dentists in the new BestStarts would be an excellent idea I think.

I’m in agreement NotSpaghetti, the centres I was involved with were good. Staff developed real skills in encouraging reluctant people to get involved. I read that Blair claimed that recent research confirms better outcomes for the sure start infants now adolescents
It’s true in the Scandi countries who invest in early years

In Wales a similar programme is called “Flying Start”

One thing I did in a Sure Start centre was to get the mums singing! ... in hatmony! They loved it and it was a bonding experience for them... sounds crazy but it was a great stress buster ... their children were happily in the next door play room and they could let their hair down.
And some of the input was quite subtle. One mum said to her child"You are a naughty boy. If you do that again I won't love you." This lead on to a discussion about what makes children feel secure and their need for love and how this impacts on their behaviour. Sounds nebulous and unquantifiable but profound in its impact ... a whole group of mums left the building with some positive parenting ideas under their belt without having attended a formal parenting class which they would have avoided like the plague. Noone was telling them what to do but there was a guided discussion that they responded to.

Angela Raynor credits Sure Start will helping her understand the needs of her first baby, singing, talking with him from day one. This isn’t something she’d learned in her family of origin . I remember sitting on the floor with one young mum who told me there was no point talking to her baby and the baby didn’t understand what she was saying. The Sure Start centre was this mum’s only source of support and guidance

GrannyGravy13

When these additional sure start centres are up and running is the time to celebrate.

So many things promised by Governments (regardless of party) never come to fruition, or if they do it’s usually a lot less than promised.

I am just so cynical about politicians and their promises/pledges…

Me too. When I see it put into practice I will celebrate.

Of course it’s a policy that needs loads of money to implement. It’s so important though, as it goes to the heart of the question “what does Labour stand for”
Conservatives closed then to save money. Look at the cost to children, families and society. Labour recognises the need to invest in Early Years.

It is a long term investment and thankfully Labour can see this.

Sounds nebulous and unquantifiable but profound in its impact

Not everything is quantifiable. When did we become so obsessed with data and spread sheets?
How do you measure the uplift in mood after singing with a group of people or sharing problems you are having with your small and demanding children?

These centres should never have been allowed to go to waste in the first place.

No
They were really just reaping the benefits when the cash was withdrawn.

As I posted up thread, Sure Start and family hubs are still in existence, last data shows over 2,000.

So this government is aiming for another 1,000, over what time span will they be up and running?

Where are they suddenly going to get the experienced staff and volunteers to staff and run them?

I am cynical, but will be very happy if they materialise.

Anecdotally, they are all mothballed in my area. A sad sight.

Then people wonder why children start school unable to use cutlery or a toilet?
Or why isolated parents struggle to make sensible choices.
Of course, wealthier families have no need of such support.

My DDiL was a manager of a Sure Start (she has since changed careers) but left after it was sold off by the Tory Council, as the owner made too many cuts etc - profit took priority.

There are others who felt the ethos changed after being privatised and left.

I am sure that there are qualified personnel out there willing to work in a child comes first Centre again.

Whitewave, my hope is changes are made to training and qualifications for early years and sw with children and families. I know more about sw training. It used to be local authorities would fund CQSW two year course for trainees. Often, they’d have been social work assistants so arrived at training with good background knowledge and experience.

As a team manager in 1986, I had two young graduate, they’d don’t the cqsw after their degrees. Other qualified sw had previously been engineer, hairdresser, social work assistants, police officer, nurse, secretary to director of SSD. So a real variety of backgrounds, aged between 23 and 45. When I retired twelve years ago, our student social workers were aged 18-20. Newly qualified sw 21 upwards. It’s just daft to extract youngsters with no life experience to go straight in at the deep end.

It shouldn't ever have gone anywhere IMO!

When I retired twelve years ago, our student social workers were aged 18-20. Newly qualified sw 21 upwards. It’s just daft to extract youngsters with no life experience to go straight in at the deep end.

How right you are. I also think that experience of having children should also be taken into account. I have sat and listened to SW's talking to families regarding how they shouldn't be doing this and that but without any real understanding about the psychology of these children. Maybe a component of doing a module in a school for SEN children too would be helpful. Even a basic knowledge about various medical and neurological conditions would be helpful too. We wonder why Social Services have such a bad rep for families who are struggling but we are putting SW's into situations they are really unprepared for in a lot of cases.

Agree icabhandthemback. I’m not suggesting the past was a golden age but - we had excellent in house multi agency training courses for all agencies involved with children. It meant the development of good working relationships. My LA had close links with camhs. Their psychologists were involved in delivering training so knowledge of attachment grew.

I disagree about the measurable outcomes idea. I worked in Sure Starts in the 2000's - a lot of the groups were mainly used by middle class families, I am not saying that those families didn't benefit, but we absolutely need measurable outcomes to ensure that the families who need the support are getting it. So yes you might need a few spreadsheets. Anyway if they are going to be run by local authorities there is no escape from outcomes and spreadsheets

Yes to research based practice and measurable outcomes Galaxy.
The sure start family centres I worked with, in Burnley, Blackburn, Bolton, bury, Accrington, Salford and areas of greater Manchester were not used at all by middle class families. They worked with very vulnerable families, many hard to reach and fearful of child protection involvement

Yes it does depend on area, we were running targeted approaches for the hard to reach families.

That’s the real challenge isn’t it. We fiend families who feared social workers would engage with the centre workers more easily. Mind, the workers put so much effort and skill into their approaches