NCT Watch

The Department for Children, Schools and families has promised new measures to to increase the effectiveness of Sure Start in the communities that were most at need, including an additional two outreach workers at each centre in the 1500 most disadvantaged areas, and a further £7m funding over the next 3 years to allow 5,000 practitioners to take up new training opportunities.

The funding was announced in response to the publication of an independent evaluation report in to the impact of the Sure Start programme, which asserted that children behaved better and were more independent if they lived in areas with a Sure Start centre.