Quite SWC.
A lot of the problem as I see it on here seems to be where the centres have moved from when I last worked in one 7 uearrs ago.
I asn't employed by them.
Basically our area was a market town in a pretty raraula rea which ahd developed a big industrial nature that ahd then imploded all at once, with a lot of simultaneous redundancies. The twon had grown as mainly large council estates based around the biggest employers, and when the industry went the estates plummeted as you would expect. There was also one notorious estate that had riots in the righties, Dad was a child in one of the first famillies housed on that estate and remembers it being specifically (and stupidly) established especially for the poorest and most troubleseom familles in teh area- a ghettoisation of the problems (Dad was 15th child in a family where Nan was disabled and Grandad alcoholic).
Private estates existed then and are now really widespread, but there was a huge issue with the attitude towards the town and the simple fact that low house prices attratced people who had little disposable income and therefore it was a fairly poor place to live.
So a Surestart need was identified. It coverd two specific wards, the ghtto one and another where it was privatyely renting poor as a majority household set up. One of the other estates already had an action plan with a significant cash injection, the last was a grave error to be missed IMO- now classed as severely deprived. Anyway.
The manager was previously a homestart manager and good at working with diferent agencies; my job was surestart homestart coordinator (got it? o nor did anyone else 
) which meant that SS funded a lot of my role (not all) but I was pure HS emplyee within the SS geographical area. The whole HS scheme, including teh two otehr geographical workers, were absed in a room within SS centre and we ran family groups there as well as at other locations, and I had input on the scheme etc as well as (in the long term unmeetable, hence post no longer existing but that happened after I left) targets wrt to volunteer recruitment and families supported.
So all of our SS famillies came from the identified area but there were small pockets of this area that were affluent, and they ame under our remit too. And relaity was that a fair proportion of my work was inj those house, dealing with famillies expecting multiple birts, agoraphobia and disability.
But the vast majority came from teh estates it's true becuase that was all we covered. There wasn't a stigma though- every pregnant woman got a visit and invite so itb was just seen as an open door. And it was a nice pale; had been owned by a well know kid's charity before us so secure gardens,.
The biggest strength though was the outside agencies that were based there- psycholgist service, SLT specialist, volunteer BF supporters, a special HHV dedicated to a value added service: the breastfeeding, PND, disability help that the regular HVs in a demandinga rea couldn;'t handle. Itb was a hub basically. No baby massage or arts stuff ( there was a gardeing tutorial befoire the whole allotments thing took off but given almost everyone had a useable garden that made sense IMO).
And that's how it shoud be IIMO, community based but not income related. Communities identified on a combination of financial / social need and lack of community service availability. I;d take referaals from groups in peripheral communities too- such as people like SWC and now myself also, although abck then I had no idea how it felt to have a diagnosed disabled child (I had a disabled child but thought I was a terrible apent and it was all my fault).
If people who teach baby massage wish to rent a room and teach it to the community at a reeduced rate then good, that should be encouraged but not a primary focus. It should be about pulling disadvanatged communities ( and most communities have a mix of need and income) togetehr. The idea was to help develop the community to become self supporting: certainly we got a lot of local people trained up in different skills working for us which was a huge positive but reality is that the only people usually who have the time to run community access groups these days are those who have no work, and they have a strong tendency to be thopse who are battling the big issues- at least that was true back home. here there is a strong SAHM culture but tehre wasn't really so much there, probably because of a lot more access to part time jobs in food processing plants etc.
Readinmg what isd happening with people's lcoal centres makes me think things have gone away from the idea that started it all whcih is a shame but I would still argue that throwing the baby out with the bathwater is as bad as funding anything and everything. You can avoid ghettoisation by focussing on community rather than individual need and getting people mixing in ways wher theyc an offer shared support regardless of household income or why theya re there, and still focus on deprivation and need as opposed to random distribution of state cash.
And yes open them up to people outside the immediate geogrpahy if referred. there's a surestart 4 miles away from me, largely used by people wanting a coffee and art class whilst I sit at home all day often bored and certainly lonely with the SN boys unable to get anything (and if it were SN related i'd happily pay from the DLA, that's what it's there fore) because my postcode is a digit out. That's ridiculous. Despite having two autistic (probably genetically caused) kids I don't even have regular access to a HV (never even met ehr actually) becuase of that postcode. there's no sense in that at all. target services by area nad get people proactively inviting teh neediest from otehr areas in. Would make real use of what was once an extraordinarily good idea.