Fears for Sure Start allayed by Blunkett

as children's centres are rolled out across the country, David Blunkett, minister for work and pensions, reminded parents and early years and childcare workers last week.

Mr Blunkett told Nursery World, 'We recognise that if we're going to reach the number of parents that we need to, and care for the number of children, we need to rapidly expand children's centres.

'But we also recognise that the core of Sure Start - the work with families, the outreach to communities, the added value that Sure Start brings - should not be lost. So in the areas for which Sure Start was originally designed, I want to keep that core and I want the children's centres to learn from the best Sure Start offers. I don't want to lose what Sure Start was originally all about.'

Mr Blunkett was speaking at Sure Start Tulse Hill, in south London, to launch National Childcare Week, run by Daycare Trust as part of National Sure Start Month.

He said, 'What we're trying to do is to get the message across that everyone is involved in this. Individuals have a personal commitment and need, and we from the Department of Work and Pensions have an absolute imperative to get childcare in Sure Start developed projects across the country, because it helps people who want to get into work to do so and people who are in work to stay in work and to have choice and flexibility.'

Mr Blunkett chatted to parents, children, and representatives from local early years and childcare services.

His visit coincided with the launch of a national recruitment campaign by the DfES throughout June to attract more people, and particularly men, into childcare. Initiatives include promoting childcare as a career for men at football matches in Hereford, and in Wandsworth publicity will appear in Chelsea football club's community development brochure to promote the Cool2Care campaign.

Dean Brewer from Lambeth Early Years told Mr Blunkett about the challenge of recruiting more men into the early years and childcare sector.

Mr Brewer said, 'We're working with six London boroughs on the Cool2Care project and hopefully we'll get 150 men across the boroughs, first of all to get them into a training course. Then we can talk about their fears and anxieties, and hopefully have some people who've already gone through that to talk to them and mentor them. I think it is only when you talk to other people and other men working in childcare that you can start to really talk about the issues.'

Susan Crane, the new chief executive of the Daycare Trust, was at the event to launch the Trust's new guide for employers.

Childcare, Employers and Exemptions, sponsored by Imagine Co-operative Childcare, is a step-by-step guide for businesses on the new tax and National Insurance exemptions on employer support for childcare. It includes advice on how to set up salary sacrifice schemes.

BLOB The Daycare Trust will hold a reception at 11 Downing Street on Wednesday 8 June with Chancellor Gordon Brown to mark National Childcare Week, at which the Childcare Champions Awards and the first Parents'

Employer of Choice Awards will be announced. The Daycare Trust will also unveil a ten-point blue print for universal early education and childcare.

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