Editor's view

The joy and success of Sure Start has been the individual nature of its programmes, with services springing from each community, tailored to meet the needs of the families within the area. What helps Bangladeshi mothers in London's Tower Hamlets, for example, can be very different to what helps children in a poor rural ward in Devon. It is this approach that many involved in children's services have warned could be lost as the local programmes are transferred into the children's centre roll-out. And the row over the forthcoming national evaluation of Sure Start, due to show few or no...