“I left school at 16, pregnant, with no qualifications. Some may argue I was not a great role model for today’s young people. The direction of my life was set but something happened. Labour’s Sure Start centres gave me and my friends, and our children, the help and support we needed to grow and develop. … More A Strong Team in place: time to take the fight to the Tories
LFoSS volunteer Aisha Afzali reports: On the 12th of July 2016 Parliament held a debate concerning ‘Early Years Development and School Readiness’. It was interesting to witness various perceptions and ideas on the matter. Whilst this matter is quite complex to summarise I would personally split this debate into three parts; initiatives, outcomes and reflections.
Finally all our pestering has paid off! At last the Government have relented and announced a timescale for their long-delayed consultation on the future of Children’s Centres. It’ll now be in Summer 2016 – exactly a year after it was first announced. Still: better late than never. Worryingly, rather than the inclusive, stand alone consultation we … More Hallejuah!
Oh dear. The Government has been caught red-handed trying to hide politically embarrassing new research on the impact of Sure Start. Politically embarrassing because this same Government has halved Sure Start funding and is constantly talking the programme down. Awkwardly the new Oxford University research proves once again that Sure Start provides a truly transformative service for … More Sure Start works. Government policy doesn’t.
Remember July? Sunshine. Summer holidays approaching. And a surprisingly encouraging comment from Tory Childcare Minister, Sam Gyimah: “There is one particular issue that is a priority for me – the future of Children’s Centres.” Really, Minister? Us too!
On the 13th July Childcare Minister Sam Gyimah announced that he was launching a consultation into children’s centres as he felt that “not enough centres were good or outstanding”. 7 weeks later and we have been given no further information since what seems like an opening precursor to dismantling the network of children’s centres created … More Consultation into Children’s Centres
Sure Start transforms lives forever. It is one of Labour’s greatest ever achievements and it is under brutal attack by the Tories. Labour Friends of Sure Start believes that the future of our Children’s Centres should be a key issue in this Leadership contest. So we wrote to every candidate for Leader and Deputy Leader … More Leadership Candidate Mary Creagh writes on Children’s Centres
The day before the general election David Cameron was asked for a guarantee that children centres would continue to receive funding, he replied: “Yes, we back Sure Start. It’s a disgrace that Gordon Brown has been trying to frighten people about this.” Yet shortly after coming to power in 2010 the government combined 18 revenue … More Target Seats and Sure Start
On the 11th March the Education Committee took evidence from Sam Gyimah MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Childcare and Education, in a follow-up session to the Committee’s inquiry into Sure Start children’s centres.
New research proves beyond doubt the incredible popularity of Sure Start. The Department for Education’s own Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England clearly shows that the overwhelming majority of users strongly value Sure Start services.
Labour Friends of Sure Start 