The evaluation of the first two years of the programme found that it had reached over 15,000 children and 6,000 parents. The Scottish Executive has allocated 80m funding for the first five years, to be distributed to all local authorities on a weighted basis to reflect population, deprivation and rural location.
The evaluation, carried out by the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh, found that Sure Start was seen as a catalyst that had galvanised the energies of staff across agencies, the voluntary sector and people in local communities.
Many local authorities said it had allowed a co-ordinated and comprehensive approach to services for the under-threes for the first time, while service providers felt it had altered the focus of work with children, as they now saw them in the wider context of family and community rather than working with the child in isolation.
However, this view was sometimes tempered by concern that competing priorities at local authority level were preventing the full allocation being spent on Sure Start Scotland services, as the cash is not ring-fenced.
Nearly all local authorities had used Sure Start Scotland resources to provide integrated services, with childcare, education, social work and health agencies and the voluntary sector working together. The services were mostly provided through new or extended children's centres, which typically included creche or nursery facilities where children could be looked after while parents accessed other services or training. Many also offered playgroups and parent and toddler groups.
According to the evaluation report, Mapping Sure Start Scotland, it had proved much easier for local authorities to get programmes up and running if the different agencies involved were already used to working together. The appointment of a dedicated Sure Start Scotland officer also helped. Potential hindrances included lack of experience of joint working, financial difficulties within the local authority and low levels of existing services.
Childminding in particular had benefited from Sure Start Scotland, with over half of local authorities using the funding to support the growth and quality of provision. Some had used the funding to develop childminding networks to provide care for very young children from vulnerable families. An example is East Ayrshire, where a Family Daycare Project recruits registered childminders to enable parents to attend counselling sessions, for example, or to help families in crisis situations such as when a mother has been unexpectedly admitted to hospital with mental health problems or remanded in custody.
Sure Start Scotland funds have also been used to support the work of Home Start, a voluntary organisation providing outreach services which has expanded from 18 to 31 schemes across Scotland as a result. Home Start trains and organises volunteers to provide a befriending home-visiting service to families with at least one child under five. Other schemes have provided targeted support to families with young children affected by drug abuse, traveller groups, families affected by mental health problems, minority ethnic groups and asylum seekers.
Mapping Sure Start Scotland is available on the website www.scotland.gov.uk.
