MPs row over the effectiveness of ‘Sure Start’ centres

Labour MP Wes Streeting took to Twitter to criticise the government’s approach to child services today, writing: “There are c.1,000 fewer Sure Start centres today than when the Conservatives came to power. The big pre-budget photo op for the Chancellor won’t even take us back to where we were in 2010. What a waste of a decade – with children’s life chances worsened as a result.”

Sure Start centres give help and advice on child and family health, parenting, money, training and employment.

Some centres also provide early learning and full day care for pre-school children.

The centres were announced in 1998 by then-Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton fired back, arguing: “And therein lies the problem. You do not measure support for vulnerable children & families by the amount of bricks and mortar with a ‘Children’ sign on. More important is the support reaching those who need it and the outcomes for children which is this government’s priority.”

Streeting hit back, stating: “You spent some time as Children’s Minister, Tim. Surely you read the impact reports on Sure Start. Maybe you didn’t. Either way, Governments you support gutted it. And therein lies the problem.”

Loughton continued his criticism: “I read many reports on Sure Start and opened and visited many excellent centres and still do. The biggest problem identified was how they were not being accessed by the least privileged 15% of families who need help most. That is what the Government is now doing.”

In 2019 an Institute for Fiscal Studies report found that where Sure Start centres offered high levels of service in deprived neighbourhoods in England, hospital visits to treat injuries fell among all children of primary school age, and by a third of all 11-year-olds. It concluded that across all areas the programme’s effect was equal to averting 5,500 hospitalisations of 11-year-olds per year.