Sure Start pioneer dies

Norman Glass, of Croydon, London, who passed away after being diagnosed with cancer last summer, began his career at the Department of Health and Social Security following graduation from Trinity College Dublin with a first-class honours degree. He was involved with major reforms of the social security system before becoming deputy director of public services at HM Treasury and chief micro-economist in 1995. It was during his time at HM Treasury that Mr Glass helped to establish Sure Start, which was based on an American project called Headstart.

The original Sure Start programme, launched in 1998, proposed around 200 local projects, concentrated in deprived areas, which aimed to bring together core programmes of health, early education and play. However, in an article published in the Guardian in January 2005, Mr Glass criticised the hasty expansion of the programme to 550 projects in 2000, believing that it would have been better to wait and learn from the experiences of the original projects. He also wrote of his disappointment at seeing the philosophy of Sure Start shift from that of a child-centred programme, 'owned' by local parents, to a scheme with an 'employability agenda' which concentrated on rolling out as many childcare places as possible to support working mothers.

During the decade Mr Glass spent as chief executive of NatCen, the research organisation doubled its revenues to £40m. He was also responsible for the establishment of the Scottish Centre for Social Research in 2004 and NatCen Learning in 2006, as well as a recent partnership with the London School of Economics.

A statement by NatCen said, 'He will be remembered by colleagues at NatCen as dynamic, intelligent and very funny, often displaying a cheeky and irreverent sense of humour. Many have spoken of Norman as someone who did much to break down people's stereotypes of a "typical civil servant".'

Mr Glass is survived by his wife Marie-Anne and their two children, Jerome and Sophie.