Opinion: In my view - More than just childcare

Sure Start was initially about much more than just childcare, and the danger is that the children's centres that are being rolled out across the country are becoming just that - childcare-plus. The holistic approach adopted by many of the centres is so important. I challenge anyone to visit the Firth Park/Shire Green Sure Start Centre in my constituency and fail to be impressed by the life transformation that goes on there. This is much more than just sophisticated childcare - the family learning, indeed lifelong learning, that such programmes offer, is vastly under-reported.

As Gywn Fields, Sure Start programme manager, told me, 'People say, "I hated schools", and now you can't keep them away from schools, they're banging on the door saying, why isn't my daughter doing better? For us, they are success stories.' One parent said, 'I came into the centre as a little mouse but I now help run it as a tiger.'

Although targeted help such as Sure Start makes a real difference, the Government has started to move away from such targeted assistance. The people at risk of falling into an underclass are often desperately struggling to improve their lives but are disrupted by the gross dysfunctionality of some families. The Family Intervention Programme, including the pilots now running across the whole country to build on the 'Dundee Project', aims to deal with this problem through intensive work in a residential setting with clearly defined outcomes and assistance with rehousing, dependent on co-operation and commitment to behavioural change: a 'something for something approach'.

By David Blunkett MP. This is an extract from his pamphlet 'The Inclusive Society? Social Mobility in 21st Century Britain', published by Progress, www.progressonline.org.uk.