{"id":14941,"date":"2018-04-06T15:13:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T14:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14941"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:04","slug":"unite-slams-sure-start-centre-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14941","title":{"rendered":"‘Postcode lottery’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first five years after birth are often considered the most important developmental stage in childhood and can strongly influence a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social mobility as an adult. It was under this widely accepted notion that the Sure Start programme was first founded under a Labour government in 1998.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Through the programme, thousands of Sure Start centres, which provided early childhood services such as learning, childcare, and parent education, blossomed and gave critical support to families in the most disadvantaged areas in the UK. The programme later covered all areas with the goal of providing universal access to its services.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But since 2010, swingeing Tory government cuts have hollowed out the programme that former prime minister Tony Blair called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098one of Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest achievements\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. And a new report published this week (April 5) has found that these cuts to Sure Start centres may be much worse than previously thought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Sutton Trust report, Stop Start<\/em><\/a>, revealed that up to a 1,000 Sure Start centres have shut in the last eight years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c double official government figures estimating only 500.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The discrepancy between the Sutton Trust report\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s estimates and the official figures, the researchers note, has arisen from the fact that there is no clear definition of what counts as a Sure Start centre.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDue to local mergers, reorganisations and service reductions, many of the original centres have been converted to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098linked sites\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, which offer fewer services and are counted by some authorities but not by others,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the Oxford University researchers noted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLooking at just \u00e2\u20ac\u0098registered children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centres\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 themselves, the drop since 2009 is more than 30 per cent. In areas that have not had closures, local authorities have had to reduce services and staffing.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tory cuts<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And this massive reduction, the report\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s researchers have said, is only the beginning as local authorities face ever-bigger cuts to their budgets. In a recent survey of 124 of the 152 councils in England , 20 per cent of councils reported that they planned reducing children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centres in the near future, with another 30 per cent saying they expected to make \u00e2\u20ac\u0098significant changes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to the services provided soon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The hollowing out of the flagship programme was accelerated in 2010, when the Tory-led government decided to no long ring-fence the budget for Sure Start and instead merge it with other programmes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A massive reduction in local authority funding over the last decade translated into a 64 per cent fall in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098early intervention\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 allocation from 2010 to 2017, which precipitated the wave of centre closures and ushered in an era of dramatically reduced services.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now, many centres have shifted focus to a much wider age group, from 0-19 years, while others have targeted only the most deprived families, diminishing the universal aspect of the programme which some have said has contributed to the stigma of using Sure Start services. Many centres open only sporadically a few times a week. Disjointed provision throughout England has meant that families with young children now live under a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098postcode lottery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, the Sutton Trust warned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

‘National scandal’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGood quality early years provision makes a substantial difference in the development of children especially those who come from the poorest homes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Sutton Trust founder Sir Peter Lampl.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a serious issue that the services that Sure Start centres offer are much more thinly spread than they were a decade ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Additionally, since 2010 there has been a precipitous decline of 30% in the number of Sure Start centres.\u00c2\u00a0 Thousands of families are missing out on the vital support they provide.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government should complete its long-promised review of the programme,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead of trying to serve all age groups, children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centres should reconnect with their original purpose of promoting child and family development for the 0-5 age group.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite lead professional officer Obi Amadi agreed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSure Start centres have proven their worth in so many cases by giving families the support they need at such a critical stage of a child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s development,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a national scandal that this government \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which purports to be all about \u00e2\u20ac\u0098family values\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has withdrawn yet another source of support for parents and their children in an austerity drive that has decimated essential services across the board.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt has been proven how important the early years are for the adult of the future yet government policy remains contrary to this,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Amadi added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need truly universal access to accessible support for the early years population.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFunding should again be ring-fenced and the government must carry out its long-delayed review of Sure Start to demonstrate the importance of the service and ignite a renewed sense of urgency in bringing these centres back to the flagship national programme it once was.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe children being born now will be alive in the next century \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we want them to be as healthy as possible and give them the best start in life. They are our future after all.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first five years after birth are often considered the most important developmental stage in childhood and can strongly influence a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social mobility as an adult. It was under this widely accepted notion that the Sure Start programme was first founded under a Labour government in 1998.   Through the programme, thousands of Sure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,660,793,571,769],"wps_subtitle":"Unite slams Sure Start centre closures","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26287,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941\/revisions\/26287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}