5/9/2008 7:48:00 AM
The Independent; 8 May 2008
Hopes were high for the Government's scheme to lift children out of poverty and low attainment. But, until recently, Sure Start has been a costly mistake. The massive government programme launched 10 years ago to raise millions of children out of poverty has been slated by critics as a disaster. Successive reports on the £3bn Sure Start scheme, set up when Labour came to power in 1997 to tackle the social and economic problems of pre-school children and their families, say that it has failed to make a significant impact. According to critics, the programme is ill-targeted, poorly implemented and a colossal waste of money. "Three billion pounds have been spent in the past nine years," says Maria Miller, shadow minister for the family, "and they are still not hitting seven out of 14 of their key indicators. You need to have a much more focused approach." Gary Craig, professor of social justice at Hull University, who has scrutinised how well Sure Start supports minority families, agrees. "When you look at the sums of money involved, it's a missed opportunity for ethnic and minority children of historic proportions. This was the one chance they had to be put on a level playing field, and it's been missed. Sure Start is a national disaster." Sure Start was launched as a visionary plan to give children an equal start in life. It was to work in the poorest areas, bringing together health and education services, and supporting parents. Hopes were high. Educational data showed that children who were behind when they started primary school never made up the lost ground, so it made sense to tackle social and educational problems at source. And the programme was modelled on work done in the United States which had shown that investing in disadvantaged pre-schoolers brought a seven-fold economic return in the long run by lowering crime and raising employment. But, until recently, government-funded evaluators found no signs of progress and even uncovered evidence that groups such as teenage mothers and minority families, the very people the programme was supposed to help, were finding it stressful and intrusive. The National Audit Office discovered that the finances of one-third of Sure Start centres were in a mess, while a report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the £1bn spent in the first five years had gone mainly on start-ups and bureaucracy, with little gain for the children themselves. If Sure Start had been about a more politically visible group than tiny tots, the outcry would have been deafening.
Independent
Foundation | Primary
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