Executive Summary
Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) formed a central part
of the Government’s anti-poverty agenda, seeking to
integrate and expand health, childcare, early education
and family support services to families with young children
living in economically deprived areas. Through providing
services that are flexible, respectful, transparent, inclusive,
involving and responsive to the needs of parents, the aim
was to engage with and to empower parents. Such an approach
marks a significant break with past professional practices,
which had a more hierarchical, formal and expert basis to
the provider/user relationship. Such engagement was also
considered to bring benefits for parent-child relationships
and to combat social exclusion by developing community cohesion.
Existing evaluations of Sure Start have noted the capacity
of programmes to generate new networks of mutual support
for parents and family members and to activate volunteers
(NESS 2001; Tunstill et al 2002). This study was commissioned
by the National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS), to take
a closer look at parents’ experiences of empowerment,
at the forms and effects of mutual support, self-help and
community action that have been developed, and at the significance
of these for work in Sure Start programmes. The study investigates
how and in what ways the practices of SSLPs in six case
study localities programmes are facilitating individual
and community empowerment.
(Extracted from Empowering Parents in Sure Start Local
Programmes by Professor Fiona Williams and Dr Harriet Churchill)
To read the full report visit http://www.surestart.gov.uk/
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