Sure Start Has Closed The Gap - Why Do The Tories Want To Scrap It?

From an original article by Stuart King, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields.

This is one of those really important stories that the media simply won't report. SureStart, the Labour Government initiative to help children and young families in our least affluent areas has succeeded in eradicating the gap between how children in its catchment area develop educationally compared to affluent areas. This straightforward chart shows the impact SureStart's had in Roehampton.

Let me just explain what the jargon means. There are two key measures for assessing how children are "developing": PSE stands for Personal, Social and Emotional development - in other words how children interact with each other, cope spending time on their own, and their relationships with their parents. CLL is Communications, Language and Literacy - ie how a child is developing educationally.

What is interesting about this graph is it shows the gap between deprived children and others closing, but attainment rising for all children. Council officers attribute this to the beneficial effect that Sure Start, as a universal service, has had for all Wandsworth’s children.

There are two questions that need to be answered now. First, isn't this more Labour-generated propaganda? The answer to that is no - I took these tables from a report written by the Conservative-run council last week; which is available here. In fact, Councillor Kathy Tracey, the Conservative Cabinet member for Children's Services in Wandsworth attended the Roehampton Partnership on Friday endorsing the successes the report highlights. Second, the cynics will question whether this has anything to do with SureStart rather than general factors. In response to that, it's really interesting that there are two other "big" SureStart schemes in the borough: one in Battersea and one in Tooting. Both started after Roehampton's - Battersea came next and Tooting was much more recent.

The same charts for each show lags in children's development - more in Tooting than Battersea and both behind Roehampton. The principal difference between them is the length of time Roehampton SureStart's been running - and it certainly isn't comparative deprivation: Roehampton is far more disadvantaged than Tooting, for example (Which is why Roehampton's SureStart got set up first).

Actually, there's a third question - and it's one that Wandsworth's Conservatives have to answer. It's simply this: SureStart works and here's the proof - so why is your party, the Conservative Party, planning to abolish SureStart if you get into power?

Cllr. Andy Gibbons

Labour Speaker Children and Young People

Children and Young People’s Committee

Building Schools for the Future
The Government has agreed to fund Wandsworth’s plans for £300m of school building and development to be carried out between 2011 and 2015. The process now moves to finding a commercial company to carry out the construction. 16 of the borough’s schools including Southfields, Burntwood, Graveney and Elliott will benefit from substantial building and technology improvements. The Labour Government’s scheme is the largest and most ambitious investment in the state school system ever.

Free Childcare for Disadvantaged 2-year-olds
The Government has given Wandsworth almost £400, 000 to provide free childcare places for two-year-olds in the poorest families. After September 2010 this may be extended to all families who want a place. However, the Council’s Conservative Cabinet member for Children and Young People, Kathy Tracey has spoken out against the initiative, suggesting a Tory victory at the next election would see the scheme scrapped.

Smallwood School to Get New Nursery Building
Smallwood School will get a £400,000 Sure Start grant to build an new early years centre. The money will come for the Government’s Sure Start fund. The school, which was put into Special Measures by OFSTED last year, will benefit from being able to integrate nursery and reception classes more easily, leading to higher achievement for the children.


Support for Families at Risk
£390,000 of Government money is to be targeted at Wandsworth families ‘at risk’. The Think Family project aims to break cycles of poor parenting by providing support for parents and families.

An End to Child Poverty?
The Government’s Child Poverty Bill, which was introduced in June this year will put into law a commitment to wipe out child poverty in Britain by 2020. Wandsworth Council will have to produce its own child poverty strategy. If successful this will be one of the greatest social achievements of this century. But would it survive under a Conservative Party which makes cuts to public investment a fundamental principle?

Council figures estimate the 30% of Wandsworth’s children under 15 live in some degree of poverty and 11,250 children are in families which get Tax Credits to supplement low incomes – this is a staggering 55% of all households with children.

Cllr. Andy Gibbons

Labour Opposition Speaker Children and Young People