Surestart should be reistated for the good of the nation

I have worked in adult education and education adjacent for 25 years. It has been an issue no one seems to have an answer to. Adults who have services provided for them, promoted to them, told the benefits of ( not just sure start but family learning, free literacy and numeracy classes, training to get into work etc) but just don't access them. Some of it is due to poor experiences in the past, much of it is generational, in that they themselves had poor/ neglectful parenting, poor experiences of school, embarrassment etc. There is a theory ( linked to the campaign for a universal basic income, which I'm not convinced will do much apart from mean all prices will rise) that says that if people's basic needs of adequate housing and nutrition are not met, they don't have the bandwidth to make good decisions, so make poor ones or don't make decisions at all.

My 13 & 11yos benefited from the centres. I did a course when the second was youngest, priority given to more vulnerable mums. I found it useful as DS1 ended up experiencing speech delays and was later diagnosed as autistic, and that knowledge that I was doing things "right" was very validating. There were also some things like his attention span that were commented on that I ended up refering to in his referal.

The other mums had massive confidence boosts, practical support for things like breast feeding (one said that it otherwise wouldn't have been on her radar before). It did a lot to.

They did a lot to empower parents, give knowledge and confidence to parent their children and close gaps by the time children started school.

We're seeing issues in school children now from the disruption of the Covid years, a highly pressured, repressive education system.
There's widespread recognition that the social and personal skills of many young children entering school is declining. Sure Start can do a lot to close these gaps before starting school, rather than them growing. Not all families that would benefit do engage, but they were very accessible and pleasant, positive places and did pull in people that struggled to access parenting textbooks or more formal support. These are challenging times for many families, both financially and in the face of society changing such as shifts in technology.

absolutely this! Also working in Children’s Services - it’s awful the lack of provision and support for children and families. Surestart offered a joined up service in a local setting with health, education, play and support - it’s needed more than ever.

And the hard to reach families often didn’t access sure start even when it’s available.

The families that need it already revive free early years education for their children from 2 years old, they can do free language and literacy classes then.

Health centres can provide advice about breastfeeding/nutrition etc if there was the will do do it properly.

We really shouldn’t need a nationwide chain of free service centres to tell parents that they need to brush their child’s teeth and all of that. The fact that some parents do need this is shameful, but it is not a reason to restart a device that provides free play groups to people who can afford to pay for them.

Having all of these services and freebies open to everyone in one convenient place regardless of need absolutely is a ‘nice to have’ and not an essential. Some of their services might be essential, the centres themselves are not.

The loss of the sure start centres was such a collosal act of national self sabotage. I agree, in the imaginary game were I call the shots, I'd sacrifice a lot of other projects to get it up and running again - but it would need to be protected in the long term from tinkering and destruction by the various governments who wash in and out. It's literally the only thing that would convince me to hold my nose and put aside my 'single issue' principles and reconsider my voting options.

We still have it in my part of the UK - can't say we've any better outcomes for it when compared with England. We don't get free childcare though - I think that would be far more beneficial. I briefly worked at SS and it was incredibly difficult to get the target groups engaged. I'm afraid I'm not convinced that pumping millions into SS is the answer to any problems.

Yes definitely. The hidden value of the sure start centres were the connections and networking they provided for people from all strata of society. As they were not means tested/ invite only my new parent group/ breast feeding group/ treasure baskets/ stay and play/ HV clinc etc was attended by a huge variety of people.

We had vets, midwives (as mum attendees), teachers, supermarket workers, hairdressers, a mum whose partner was in prison, an 18 year old and that's just off the top of my head. We met in groups more than once a week, supported each other by accident and I have maintained some of those friendships 14 years later (with a cross section of those groups) .

We had Christmas meals out and many people stayed close over the years and carried on meeting at school gates. Independent social events meant this spread to the dads and there was even a dad's stay and play at the centre on a Saturday that was well attended - they got bacon sandwiches which was somewhat a point of contention.

This was apart from the fact the centre workers were fab. As means to cross class lines it was invaluable and their destruction was one of the most damaging and shortsighted things the subsequent governments did. If you want society to look after and support itself you need to facilitate connections not break them.

'That is the problem though. The ' hard to reach' families aren't looking.'

But why are the hard to reach families not looking? They have the same access to the internet, midwives and healthcare professionals as the middle classes?

If surestart worked you'd only need it for a generation.

They supported parents mental health, early intervention, role modelled positive parenting. A place to go for advice , to off load, make friends . Gain a support network.

I would say that's more than 'nice to have'

Without them it just means more children are arriving at school with needs that could have been supported earlier.

That is the problem though. The ' hard to reach' families aren't looking. It was hard enough when they just had to go to one free local place. That's why they are ' hard to reach'. Having a one stop place where you could be taught about feeding, potty training, brushing your kids teeth, the child was socialised, where a health visitor could go, where parents could do an adult literacy/numeracy class while their child was looked after etc is more than ' nice to have'. Now everyone is doing things on the fly. Much of it is done by libraries, and they will be the next services to go.

I can't explain how angry this comment has made me, Surestart isn't the NCT with yummy mummies sat around drinking coffee.
Surestart was literally life changing for some families and especially for women.
I volunteered with Surestart for years and saw for myself how it lifted women from poverty by helping build their confidence and giving them the skills and encouragement to find paid employment.

No 18 is the massive cut off cliff edge that is such a massive issue for young people. We are in the midst of a mental health epidemic with next to no services. Any spare cash really does need to go there. Most families have 2 times working parents with free quality childcare so don’t need centres on top. We have better online services and info too.

I imagine the cost of childcare is going to prevent many (those not eligible for the free hours for low incomes) from attending nursery. My son can go to nursery soon with the new hours otherwise he would have to wait until three. I do wonder if many of the toddlers now are going to miss out on socialising with peers because parents can't afford nursery.

They had sure start when my daughter was a baby. She’s 12 now. It was about a 1 minute walk from my house and I used to go to the baby sensory play classes there.

It was mostly play group session and then ran courses on multiple stuff that was a load of crap. I went to some as my youngest had a disability. They were all useless, I knew more information then they did.

Honestly can’t see why we need them again.

I mostly used it to meet mates and have a chat while the toddlers played for free. Which I could do in a Softplay and pay. Funding doesn’t need to be wasted on this.

Oh and as a side note, I’m not in poverty, I wasn’t a single mum, I didn’t need help financially and I certainly didn’t need their courses they ran. Everyone I knew used it to hang out with the kids cheaply.

No young people struggling now had Surestart, I know because we attended it.

But mental health for the generation who had Surestart is dire. The numbers out of work or education is huge. There is no provision and if we’re now spending a fortune on free childcare I’m not sure that yet more should be pumped into that age group when teens and young adults are struggling with nothing.

Sure start (or similar programmes focused on family wellbeing & child development in the early years) are not an "extra" or a "nice to have"

I firmly believe the epidemic of mental health issues that young people are experiencing now has been exacerbated by the ending of 90% of sure start centres in the country.

I used to work in data collection centrally for the programme in a big UK city. Once the Tories got in, funding was removed & the council struggled on for a few years, tried outsourcing, but ultimately the majority closed & the ones that remained no longer offered a universal service - which is important to reach ALL families as it becomes a community resource & not just somewhere targeted at the poor.

One of the worst things this government has done & the effects of it will be felt for a long time.

I didn’t misunderstand at all, and yes I do work with children.

Sure start centres were great but many of the services could be provided in other ways and I would prioritise mental health services and schools first.

Most of what sure start did can still be accessed by parents, they just have to look harder to find it.

In my area there are still a few "family hubs" which act similar to what I believe sure starts were. I attended a breastfeeding group there most weeks until I returned to work.

The problem I found was that almost everyone attending the group (including myself) was driving in from a fair distance and were generally more affluent (teachers/doctors etc) whereby the hub is in a very deprived area. I think other sessions there were attended by a similar demographic. I can imagine this would be the problem if sure start centre were bought back.

My eldest is 21, when he was a toddler we used to live near a SureStart centre. The "catchment area" of the centre was very mixed, with some real pockets of poverty and deprivation, a large immigrant community, but also some more affluent middle class areas where the parents were not facing challenges in raising their kids. Every afternoon there was something going on at the centre and we made lots of use of it, despite not falling into the real target group. Everyone I met through going to their craft sessions, active play sessions, sing and rhyme sessions wasn't their target "deprived" group either.

Heard a HV at a baby clinic several times telling parents about the centre and encouraging attendance, usually with the response that it wasn't the sort of thing they were interested in. You can lead a horse to water...