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Notices and Press Releases

Daycare Trust : Welcomes Sure Start evaluation

Daycare Trust, the national childcare charity, today (4th march 2008) gave a warm welcome to the latest National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS) report.

Speaking from the National Conference for Sure Start Children's Centre Managers, at which the research was launched, Joint-Chief Executive Alison Garnham said: "This latest research shows that living in an area served by a Children's Centre has a positive effect on all children. This is welcome evidence that the Sure Start Children's Centre programme, which Daycare Trust campaigned for over a number of years, is an effective ladder out of disadvantage."

An earlier phase of the evaluation had suggested that Sure Start might be failing to reach the most disadvantaged families. The latest report was compiled by a team under Professor Ted Melhuish at the Institute of Children, Families and Social Issues at Birkbeck College, University of London.

"The positive effects on three-year-olds who live in a Sure Start area appear to be wide ranging. They showed 'positive social behaviour' and greater independence, and were more likely to have received the recommended immunisations and less likely to have suffered an accidental injury in the past year," said Alison.

"The report's findings show that children will also have benefited from Sure Start's effects on parents, who are providing their children with a better home learning environment and who reported greater use of support services."

Alison adds: "The report also shows, however, that there is more work to be done as the Children's Centre programme rolls out, to ensure that families, and particularly those hardest to reach, reap the benefits. It is encouraging to hear the Secretary of State confirm the Government's intention to improve outreach services, particularly to black and minority ethnic families, which was one of the recommendations in Daycare Trust's Listening to black and minority ethnic parents about childcare, published by our Ensuring Equality and Listening to Families projects in summer 2007."