ABSTRACT
Sure Start began in January 1999 as an early-years intervention policy in each of the 20 per cent most deprived neighbourhoods in the United Kingdom. The aim was to raise the social, cultural, human and economic capital of the children and families with the Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs). Strategically, the initiative represents the notion of ‘focused government’ policy, promoting collaboration between government and local communities in targeted areas. ‘Governments can focus their delivery systems on a relatively small number of particular goals through concerted periods of political prioritisation, policy development and implementation’ (Parker and Gallagher 2007: 157). To this extent, Sure Start can be seen as a pilot for the wider ECM agenda, modelling approaches to public participation and multi-agency working. It also adopted an ‘ecological perspective’ on the trajectories of young children in line with Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems Theory.
