Regent's Park &
Kensington North
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Karen Buck MP Regent's Park & Kensington North |
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New Start for Sure StartOctober 2005 The Sure Start programme, which targets resources towards, and co-ordinates services for, children in our most deprived communities, came under the microscope last month when a major research study was inconclusive in its findings about the programme’s value. It is, of course, early days for definitive conclusions to be reached about a scheme which expressly designed to produce benefits in the long term, by trying to break the cycle of disadvantage within which poor parents tend to get the worst services, leading to poorer life chances for their own children. Looking at our own local experience, however, I can only express the deepest admiration for what has been achieved. Indeed, the five Sure Start programmes in Westminster and Kensington are doing remarkable things with communities which not only are, by definition, amongst the most disadvantaged in the country, but also have exceptional levels of diversity and population turnover. Neither of these are, of course, necessarily problematic in their own right, but they can easily leave parents and children, especially those in ‘hard to reach’ groups, highly isolated. Sure Start, and the newer wave of Children’s Centres, are designed to improve early education and health services for the under fours, not least by improving parental contact in the vital first few weeks of a child’s life. Such contacts, and levels of take-up of services, are easy to measure, and our local results of impressive. What is harder to measure, either by the national research study or locally, is the benefit in terms of increased confidence, reduced isolation and improved community cohesion. Yet this is the message I hear time and again from parents, whether I meet them on the doorstep of at one of my regular sessions with Sure Start projects. Perhaps the highest tribute that could be paid to Sure Start came from a young mum I had been helping with housing problems. After enduring several years of chronic over-crowding, she finally got the chance of a new flat- in St John’s Wood!- but her first reaction was to say no, because, she said “ It would mean leaving Church Street Sure Start. It has meant so much to me- in fact, it has been my lifeline”. And at a time when we are debating those thorny themes of multiculturalism and integration, it was a particular delight to visit the Sure Start picnic in Meanwhile Gardens this summer, to promote the value of breast feeding, and to see a mix of parents for every background imaginable- several faiths and none, dozens of language groups; tenants and home-owners- supporting each other as parents. The government is investing millions of pounds in building on Sure Start, with Children’s Centres expected across Westminster and North Kensington. Westbourne and Bayswater, Harrow Road and Maida Vale are all due to have such centres by 2008 and planning is underway now. Sadly, the extra investment given to this programme by boroughs such as Camden is not being given by Westminster or Kensington and Chelsea, with both boroughs preferring to use the opportunity to extra government money to reduce rather than add to their services. Despite this, we can still do exciting things to carry forward the agenda for children. For example, I am arguing that Westminster Council could use the Carlton Hill nursery as a base for a Maida Vale Children’s Centre, with the nursery continuing alongside. This would surely be better than selling off this lovely building, which is what the Council currently wants to do. If you agree that this would be the sensible way to proceed, please join me in this campaign. Our children deserve the best we can give them- let’s make sure that they are at the heart of local policy making. |
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