Podcasts about sure start

There is a natural desire on the part of governments to ensure that their future citizens -- i.e. their nation's children -- are happy, healthy and productive, and that therefore governments have policies that work to achieve that. But good intentions never guarantee good policies. Here's where economist Janet Currie steps in. Currie is the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where she co-directs, with Kate Ho, the Center for Health and Wellbeing. In this Social Science Bites podcast, the pioneer in assessing the nexus of policy and parenting explains to interviewer David Edmonds how programs like Head Start in the United States and Sure Start in the United Kingdom provide real benefits over time to both their young clients as youths and later on in life. After looking at a variety of programs and interventions, she details that "the general conclusion [is] that the programs that were spending more money directly on the children tended to have better outcomes." Her findings suggest this holds true even when similar approaches don't have the same effect on adults. "[I]n the United States," she says, "if you give health insurance to adults who didn't have health insurance, they use more services, and they are happier about that, that they get to use services. But it doesn't actually seem to save very much money. On the other hand, when you cover children from a young age, that is cost effective, that does save money, and in fact, the costs of the program probably pay for themselves in terms of the reduction in illness and disability going forward." In addition to her work at Princeton, Currie is also co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research's Program on Families and Children. She has been president of the American Economic Association for 2024 and has also served as president of the American Society of Health Economics, the Society of Labor Economics, the Eastern Economic Association, and the Western Economic Association. Two years ago, she received the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize "for her foundational work on the influence of context such as policy decisions, environment, or health systems on child development."

Our Speech and Language therapist Debi, who works within Sure Start, shares valuable insights on how parents can play a pivotal role in their child's speech and language development.And how the benefits of focusing on how simple interactions during everyday activities can significantly enhance and help children thrive in speech and language development rather than relying solely on toys or digital devices.

This episode is with Tom Riordan. Tom is a legend in public service circles. He's been the Chief Executive of Leeds Council for 14 years, having previously led the Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward. Tom has achieved a huge amount in his time at Leeds, including substantial economic investment and regeneration, as well as being the Chief Executive that oversaw the turnaround of Leeds Children's Services from being in a very poor state to being a real exemplar. Tom and I talk about how you effect meaningful change in a place, how you work with partners, how it requires time, how you've got to have a really clear set of “ambitions” or “obsessions”. We get into some detail which I think leaders who are currently leading councils and “places” will find very useful. We also talked about prevention, how Leeds kept its Sure Start centres and had a focus on destigmatising people seeking support. Anybody who has encountered Tom (or even better worked with him) will know that he is totally against hero leadership. He sees himself as a servant leader and there's lots of good hints and tips as to how you can try and adopt a bit of that yourself.

In this 'Commission Conversation' Geoff Barton, Chair of the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England, talks to Jean Gross about the importance of developing early language, the impact of Sure Start and how we can ensure teachers have the time, oppportunity and knowledge to develop their students' spoken language skills.  Jean Gross is an education expert who has led many national initiatives aimed at improving the learning, attainment  and wellbeing of disadvantaged children and those with special educational needs. Until 2011 she was the government's Communication Champion for children and young people, responsible for promoting the importance of good language skills. Before this she led work on overcoming barriers to achievement as a Director of the government's National Strategies, inclusing developing the influential Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme. 

In February 2024 Planning published a special report by Joey Gardiner entitled ‘how cost-saving consultants disrupted council planning services'.  Cash-strapped councils have been following management consultants' advice to split up their planning teams. Staff have been put into central departments to handle additional non-planning tasks. But the upshot, say critics, has been declining performance and a staff exodus. Joey's piece highlighted the tumult at Tandridge, which in 2020 was formally threatened with designation over the quality of its decision-making. A subsequent PAS review of the council's development management service, which was published in 2021, laid the blame squarely on a team structure “developed during the corporate restructure” that it said was “not fit for purpose”.  That local government has borne the brunt of the age of austerity is well known. According to the IFS, during the 2010s, councils' overall core funding per person fell by an average of 26% in real terms, with higher council tax revenues only partially offsetting a 46% reduction in funding from central government.  Those in the sector know that planning and development has borne the brunt of that. Again according to the IFS, spending per person on planning and development fell by 58% between 2010/11 and 2019/20, which was second only to cuts to services for young people and Sure Start. Perhaps less well known, and what Joey's article has helped to shine a light on, is the impact on planning services of the kind of whole-authority service transformations that some authorities have undertaken to in order to deal with these financial pressures. To explore this issue further Sam Stafford invited four of the people quoted in Joey's article to expand upon their experiences with him. They are old friends of the podcast Mike Kiely, Gilian MacInnes and Paul Barnard, and new friend of the podcast Peter Ford. In a conversation recorded at Soho Radio Studios at the end of April 2024 they talked about the pressures that LPAs have been and are under; why the nature of planning services do not lend it to whole-authority service transformations; and the impact of such upheavals. They also talked about whether there are too planning teams and whether Chief Planning Officers could and should be at the top decision-making table. The episode starts though with a brief conversation that Sam recorded online with Joey Gardiner recently about his special report for Planning. Sam asked Joey how he went about putting the report together; what he found most striking in so doing; and what feedback he has had on it. Some accompanying reading. How cost-saving consultants disrupted council planning services (£) https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1860857/cost-saving-consultants-disrupted-council-planning-services Tandridge District Council - DM Review https://tandridge.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s4234/Appendix%20A%20-%20Development%20Management%20Review.pdf Guildford Borough Council - Development Management Establishment Review https://democracy.guildford.gov.uk/documents/s26379/Item%208%20-%20DM%20Budget%20Exec%20Report%20revised%20for%20Autumn%202022%20-%20FINAL-%20V4.pdf How have English councils' funding and spending changed? 2010 to 2024 https://ifs.org.uk/publications/how-have-english-councils-funding-and-spending-changed-2010-2024 Some accompanying listening. Episode 84 of Room 106 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ep84-how-cost-saving-management-consultants-are-impacting/id1596110607?i=1000649057189 A Shared Sense Of Purpose - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan (Vince Clarke Remix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpeRnH2FLA4

More long-term, mission-led policymaking is sorely needed, but how best to do it? The Sure Start programme was set up with the aim of giving young children the best possible start in life, narrowing gaps in outcomes for disadvantaged children. First announced by the New Labour government in 1998, it has evolved regularly over the past two decades. Recent evaluations have found early versions of Sure Start delivered positive impacts for children – supporting improved educational attainment, employment outcomes and long-term health.    So what lessons does Sure Start hold for long-term policymaking? How can national policymakers drive long-term change in social outcomes, what pitfalls need to be avoided, and where should any new government be looking if they want to improve children's lives and health today?  To discuss, our Chief Executive Jennifer Dixon is joined by: Naomi Eisenstadt, former director for Sure Start and current Chair of Northamptonshire integrated care board (ICB). Donna Molloy, Deputy Chief Executive at Foundations – What Works Centre for Children & Families. Show notes IFS (2021). The health impacts of Sure Start.  IFS (2024). The short- and medium-term impacts of Sure Start on educational outcomes.  Eisenstadt (2022). Sure Start Review, The Therapeutic Journal.  The Health Foundation (2024). Sure Start shows that to improve health, governments must keep the faith (blog).  Molloy & Asmussen (2021). Worth the wait: new evaluation data shows positive impacts of Family Nurse Partnership, EIF/WWCSC Hadley et al (2016). Implementing the UK's teenage pregnancy strategy for England. Reproductive Health. 

Trust is the glue of life: Trust in government and its statutory services is an essential part of social cohesion. But in recent years, continued revelations of mismanagement, bad behaviour, poor governance, scandals and cover ups in Whitehall and town halls have soured trust. How do we restore it? In this episode Steve's guest and expert witness is Anne Longfield CBE, former Children's Commissioner for England. In part one Steve sets out his eighth principle, in part two Anne responds. “This is my conversation with my guest and expert witness Anne Longfield CBE, Chair of the Commission on Young Lives, and the former Children's Commissioner for England. We talk together about Principle 8: Trust is the glue of life. It was brilliant talking with Anne, because I've admired Anne for so many years before I knew her. I've watched her work in her role as Children's Commissioner for England and before that as she worked alongside the Labour government years ago to introduce the idea of Sure Start and children's centres working with young parents and young children, creating for them a better future. She is a brilliant thinker and strategist. You'll enjoy what she has to say.” – Steve ChalkeAbout Anne Longfield Former Children's Commissioner for England (2015-2021) Anne Longfield is a passionate champion for children, influencing and shaping the national debate and policy agenda for children and their families. She established and chaired the Commission on Young Lives, as well as founding the Centre for Young Lives in 2024. Anne previously led a national children's charity and worked on the delivery of the Sure Start programme in the No 10 Strategy Unit. She regularly authors articles, and appears in national media, and her new book, Young Lives, Big Ambitions is published in April 2024. Anne was awarded a CBE in 2021 for services to children.About this podcast series This podcast series, and the accompanying book by Steve Chalke, sets out ten tried and tested practical principles for ‘how' to develop joined up, cost effective, community empowering work, gleaned from the hard-won experience that sit at the heart of the mission of Oasis over the last four decades. Steve talks to 13 expert witnesses who help him bring his book to life with their own thoughts and lived experiences.Steve's book is available wherever you buy your books but we recommend you buy it from Bookshop.org an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.This book is also available on Audible.The Manifesto for Hope podcast is brought to you by Oasis. Our producer is Peter Kerwood and the sound and mix engineer is Matteo Magariello. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trust is the glue of life: Trust in government and its statutory services is an essential part of social cohesion. But in recent years, continued revelations of mismanagement, bad behaviour, poor governance, scandals and cover ups in Whitehall and town halls have soured trust. How do we restore it? In this episode Steve's guest and expert witness is Anne Longfield CBE, former Children's Commissioner for England. In part one Steve sets out his eighth principle, in part two Anne responds. “This is my conversation with my guest and expert witness Anne Longfield CBE, Chair of the Commission on Young Lives, and the former Children's Commissioner for England. We talk together about Principle 8: Trust is the glue of life. It was brilliant talking with Anne, because I've admired Anne for so many years before I knew her. I've watched her work in her role as Children's Commissioner for England and before that as she worked alongside the Labour government years ago to introduce the idea of Sure Start and children's centres working with young parents and young children, creating for them a better future. She is a brilliant thinker and strategist. You'll enjoy what she has to say.” – Steve ChalkeAbout Anne Longfield Former Children's Commissioner for England (2015-2021) Anne Longfield is a passionate champion for children, influencing and shaping the national debate and policy agenda for children and their families. She established and chaired the Commission on Young Lives, as well as founding the Centre for Young Lives in 2024. Anne previously led a national children's charity and worked on the delivery of the Sure Start programme in the No 10 Strategy Unit. She regularly authors articles, and appears in national media, and her new book, Young Lives, Big Ambitions is published in April 2024. Anne was awarded a CBE in 2021 for services to children.About this podcast series This podcast series, and the accompanying book by Steve Chalke, sets out ten tried and tested practical principles for ‘how' to develop joined up, cost effective, community empowering work, gleaned from the hard-won experience that sit at the heart of the mission of Oasis over the last four decades. Steve talks to 13 expert witnesses who help him bring his book to life with their own thoughts and lived experiences.Steve's book is available wherever you buy your books but we recommend you buy it from Bookshop.org an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.This book is also available on Audible.The Manifesto for Hope podcast is brought to you by Oasis. Our producer is Peter Kerwood and the sound and mix engineer is Matteo Magariello. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest this week is Naomi Eisenstadt the first director of Sure Start. Sure Start was the boldest attempt to close the inequality gap in education since the inception of the welfare state. In light of recent IFS reports showing the long-term benefits of Sure Start, we reflect on its successes, failures, and legacy. 

My guest this week is Sally Bernard who was a schoolteacher for many years, currently living in Deal, Kent. She originally wanted to run an antique shop but her father played a key role in the career route that she followed. Sally talks about her involvement with Sure Start, and why she disagreed with the late Glenys Kinnock on reading by osmosis. We learn why Sally wanted to be a better teacher than the teachers who had taught her, and Sally also reflects on the nature of the teaching experience. She went to the Open University and worked as a community education officer at an aquarium in Bermuda. Sally discusses growing up in Bristol and looking after international friends from various countries in Europe when she was young. Her father had been a medical officer in Belsen and her mother had been a nurse. We talk about the role that technology plays and how she still sends letters and we find out why New Zealand was such a precious place for Sally and her husband Adrian to live, and how it matched their expectations. We find out why Sally likes revisiting the past and why she doesn't have any regrets. We also talk about the nature of home and whether she would consider any places more ‘home' than others. She remembers time off from work when she was living in London to see a very bloody production of Julius Caesar at the Barbican, and we turn to the nature of private education, and why there weren't many good role models for Sally in her day. The best one was a dance teacher who was fired because she had taught her pupils dances from West Side Story. Then, at the end of the interview we discover why Sally is neither a looking back nor a looking forward type of person.

I recently spoke with Jenny Rook. And she has a story. Jenny is a mental health advocate and writer, and has three golden retrievers! That alone makes life good. Jenny Rook was born in Essex, UK and educated at York University, where she graduated with  a degree in English and Music. Studying the greats of literature called a halt to a burgeoning desire to write.    After various adventures in the scrap trade, in bookselling, helping run an employment agency, and having children, she settled back into her first love, writing. Her first book Fly By Night (1989) was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to. This was the first of a fantasy trilogy and Headline wanted all three.  All her fiction books were published under the name Jenny Jones. Two adult ghost story novels followed, Where the Children Cry and The Blue Manor, both of which were published by Gollancz. Five other fantasy/horror books for teenagers were published by Scholastic, Penguin, and Orion.   In 2006 Jenny qualified as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist for children and their families. She worked mainly for the National Health Service and also volunteered for Sure Start before taking early retirement to look after her elderly mother.  Jenny now lives with her husband, mother and three dogs in the Cotswolds. ------------------------  Below is an excerpt from her latest book “The Book of the Sun”. ‘Are these my thoughts or yours?' I asked. ‘It doesn't matter,' the Sun replied. ‘You are me and I am you… The Book of the Sun concerns the structure of the living universe, why it is so difficult here, and why we should all began to realise that we are all one, and yet diverse at the same time. It answers many questions that have concerned minds throughout the millennia. Why are we here? Why is there suffering? What is the future for us? These questions and many more are answered.  Her website is www.jennyrook.com.   I know you will enjoy this podcast and Jenny's books!   --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michelemarotta/support

Amanda Frolich, aka Action Amanda, is an award-winning children's entertainer, early years educator, health and fitness expert, best-selling author and Government advisor.This year marks Amanda's 30th year in business as the CEO of Amanda's Action Club. From starting in a small community centre, Amanda has grown to working globally. Her impressive client list includes some well-known stars including; Brad and Angelina and The Beckhams… Peter Jones, Amanda Holden, The Beautiful South's Alison Wheeler, Take That's Mark Owen, Declan Donnelly, Sarah Beeny, Catherine Tate, Olympian Matthew Pincent… and many more…In 2020, Amanda was invited to become a UK Children's First Champion in Parliament, encouraging policymakers to put children first at the heart of all decision making. She previously worked as a children's fitness consultant on the government's Change4Life programme and was selected to run classes, events and training for Sure Start. Over the last 30 years Amanda has won multiple awards for her work, she is a number one best-selling author and iTunes number one chart topper — beating Baby Shark to the number one spot!

How to improve outcomes for children growing up in disadvantage? In this episode, we speak with Naomi Eisenstadt, director of the Sure Start programme in England. Finding a balance between creating opportunities and reducing pressures for families is vital, but at present there is too much focus on behaviour and too little recognition of the financial struggle. Read the full notes on our website: https://poverty-unpacked.org/?p=1037

As the Online Safety Bill returns to parliament, Vicki and Geraldine talk to the CEO of Barnardo's, which supports many of Britain's most vulnerable children, about how much difference it could make.Talking points:What would the world have looked like if previous policies to intervene early in children's lives - like Sure Start - had continued at the same level?Can regulation make the internet safer for vulnerable children without closing the doors on children's exploration and expression online?Why should age assurance for pornography be fast-tracked?Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt and Geraldine Bedell, Tech Shock is produced by Tim Malster and edited by Geraldine Bedell.wwwTwitterFacebookInstagram

Edward Melhuish is Professor of Human Development at the University of Oxford. He has been the Director of the National Evaluation of Sure Start (2001-2012), the Effective Pre-school Primary & Secondary Education (EPPSE, 1997-2014) and SEED projects.  He is currently undertaking longitudinal studies of 4000 children in England and Norway.  These studies contributed to social policy in the UK for families, early years services and education, including universal provision of pre-school for all 3 & 4 year-olds and establishing 3500 Children's Centres, Every Child Matters and 10-Year Childcare strategies, and early education for 2-year-olds for the 40% most disadvantaged.  He has given evidence to parliamentary committees and is an advisor to research councils in Norway, Finland, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Australia,  Korea, Canada, USA, Chile, and the European Commission, OECD and WHO.

In episode 11 of the DIAL podcast, Professor Gabriella Conti from University College London discusses two pieces of research part-funded through DIAL's Growing up Unequal? The Origins, Dynamics and Lifecycle Consequences of Childhood Inequalities project.  The first investigates socio-emotional inequalities in children born in the UK in the 1970s and the Millennium and the second investigates the long term health benefits of the UK Government's high profile Sure Start programme.  Transcript Christine Garrington  0:00   Welcome to DIAL a podcast where we tune in to evidence on inequality over the life course. In series three we're discussing emerging findings from DIAL research. For this episode, we're talking to Professor Gabriella Conti from University College London, about two pieces of research. The first compares the behaviour of children born in the 1970s with those born in the millennium, the other looks at the long-term health benefits of the UK government's Sure Start programme. Gabriella Conti  0:26   So we know that early human capital is a key determinant of lifecycle outcomes. And by now we also know that if there are early life inequalities that can perpetuate and amplify a person's life cycle. And so it's really important to document existence of early inequalities if they're present, thinking about what we can do about them. So there was one starting point we ha. Another one was that we know that inequality has been increasing throughout the developed world and in particular in the US and the UK in the recent years. And there is likely less evidence for inequalities in child development. In particular, we were interested in the dimension of child development whose importance is being increasingly recognised which is child social emotional development. And so this is why then we started looking into data and see what we could do to document the evolution of inequalities in the social emotional development of children as early as we could. Christine Garrington  1:26   So how did you go about the research tell us what you actually, what you actually did? Gabriella Conti  1:30   You know, the documenting evolution inequalities for a long period of time requires that you have data which can be compared across time. And in the UK we're fortunate enough to have British Cohort Studies, which essentially follow the life cycle of cohorts since birth. And in particular, we use the data from two of these cohorts. The British Cohort Study, which has followed the cohort born in one week in 1970. And the Millennium Cohort Study which has followed a cohort born throughout 2000. So these were like, a thirty years apart. And we had pretty big sample sizes more than nine thousand for the 70 Cohort, more than five thousand for the 2000, so called Millennium Cohort. So we were able to extract from these two data sets, relatively similar questions on child behaviour as to the mothers in the two cohorts. At age five so relatively early in life, and mothers were asked questions about whether for example, the child is restless? The child is solitary? Child is screaming or fidgety? And we construct the comparable skill so for two important dimensional social emotional skills, which have been used widely in an interdisciplinary literature on child development, namely, externalising and internalising. Christine Garrington  2:51   Can you explain in simple terms, a little bit about what we mean by those types of things? Gabriella Conti  2:55  Such emotional skills internalising refer to the child ability to focus their drive and determination and externalising relates to interpersonal skills. So a child with better externalising skills is likely less restless, hyperactive, less antisocial and a child with better internalising skills in less solitary, neurotic and worried. And one important thing that it's good to notice at this point is that while you know the same questions have been asked to the mothers across the two cohorts, and we were super careful and just used the questions which were worded in a similar way of course it could be that what is perceived as a hyperactive child has changed in thirty years. And so we use reasoned methodological advances to take this into account to make sure that we're effectively comparing the same constructs that showing the development of children and this methodology can be used in other settings. And we'll show that it's really important to use as we show in our application. Christine Garrington  4:01   Just talk us through then the key things that sort of emerged once you'd gone through all of this, once you'd look so closely at that data, once you'd put those methods in place and once you'd used those really robust approaches. Gabriella Conti  4:12   Yeah, so actually, we find that inequalities in social emotional development - this externalising internalising behaviour of these very young children of five years did increase in this 30 years between 1970 and 2000. So this kid we're measured in 1975 and 2005. And it's important to notice that we're not able to say whether one cohort was better or worse than another because we weren't able to compare the levels. Because thanks to our methodology, we were able to compare the difference so the inequality between these two cohorts but no whether one was better or worse than the other. But we saw very clearly that the inequality in the cohort born more recently, so the one born in 2000 was greater than one born in the seventies. So in particular, we see increasingly this early gap between the children with the highest and the lowest social emotional skills. So for example, no matter which measure we used we saw that for example, if you looked at the difference between the 19th and 13th percentile, this has widened substantially in 30 years. And this increase was particularly pronounced for boys. For example, for boys, the gap is increased by 19% for externalising skills and even more 30% for internalising skills. So inequality in the social emotional skills so very young children are five years of age was much lower among the children born in the 70s than among those born in the 2000. Christine Garrington  5:50   I will ask you what you make of all of that in a moment, but you also took a number of sort of different factors into consideration, didn't you including the mother's level of education, what did you see there? That was important? Gabriella Conti  6:00   Yeah, indeed, because as we know there have been several changes in the composition or the population composition or the workforce but also changes in women's experience, especially in the labour market. And so we wanted to look not only what happens in these gaps across the groups but also zooming in on particular groups. And so in particular, we found that even when we compare children or mothers with different characteristics, we found increases inequalities and in particular, while having more educated mothers or mothers with healthier behaviour was an important determinant to the skills in both cohorts. We found that the benefit of having the mother we higher levels of education or a mother in employment was significantly larger for both boys and girls in the most recent cohort than in the cohort born in 1970. So in other words, the difference between the children are more or less educated mother was greater among those born in 2000, as compared to those born in the seventies. And we found this for children's mothers with respect to mothers education, with respect to mothers employment, but those inequalities increase between children and mothers who smoked and not during pregnancy. Christine Garrington  7:19   Okay, so some really interesting findings. I'm interested to know whether you were surprised by what you found? And if so, how you explain what you found? Gabriella Conti  7:26   I might sound a bit cynical but I am going to say I wasn't actually surprised about the findings per se, because we do know that there have been many increases inequality across different dimensions. What I found really surprising was the extent of the increase and the fact we could see that so early across such an important measure of development. So we did spend a lot of time in trying to tease out the various determinants of this increase in inequality and as I mentioned before, there being significant societal changes in these thirty years so for example, it's also documented in the paper across the two cohorts. The average age of women have children has increased by approximately three years from 26 to 29. The proportion of women in employment has increased in our data we see from 42% to 62%. And especially the proportion of unmarried mothers is increased dramatically from 5% in the 70 cohort to 36% among mothers in the 2000 cohort. So mothers are having children on one hand at an older age and when they're more engaged in the labour market, which is good for social emotional skills. But on the other hand, mothers are also more likely to be unmarried at birth, which is more stressful, and so it's less good for social emotional development. And we have used the methodology to decompose these factors. And we found the changes in these factors explain about half of the cross cohort increasing inequality when it comes to externalising skills.  Christine Garrington  9:02   Okay, so let's consider them the, the implications of these widening inequalities that you're hinting at here and talking about here, especially in the you know, recent context of the COVID-19 pandemic. What would you say overall Gabriella that we learn from this work? Gabriella Conti  9:17   So first of all, let me remark that we've seen during the pandemic because there's been increases in inequalities in learning experiences at all level by the children in the home environment. So the children would have been better able to have learning for example, at home or will have had the parents will be better able to cope. They certainly been affected less severely than children in a more disadvantaged situation. And so now it's starting to be documented that in particular, children's social emotional skills have been affected by the pandemic. And on the other hand, as have documented those in other work, support especially for the more disavantaged is also diminished during the pandemic. So for example, done work on the Universal Health Visiting therapist showing that they're in addition to the cuts of course for many years, they've been an unequal in widespread deployment across local authorities. And so the pandemic there has been a double hit on the one hand families that have been unequally affected depending on individual circumstances. On the other hand, also, you know, public services so which are supposed to help families and to help preventing inequalities have been also unequally affected. And so it's really crucial that the government takes stock of this and hopefully, in the upcoming annual review, it provides more support for the earliest and prevent at least the widening of these inequalities. Christine Garrington  10:47   Yeah, on this whole idea of the importance of early intervention being key to reducing inequalities. We're really fortunate to be able to talk to you today about another piece of research that you've been doing, and looking at one of the best known really policy innovation interventions in this era, particularly here in England, which is called Sure Start. Now, I think many people are familiar with it, but for those who are not I wonder if you can just talk us through what Sure Start is? Gabriella Conti  11:11   Yes, thanks so much for this question. Indeed, with colleagues at the Centre for Fiscal Studies we have been working for a few years now on Sure Start and Sure Start is really a major early education initiative in UK, which was originally area based. And for those who don't know, it has quite a long history. It was indeed first introduced by the Labour government in 1999, so called Sure Start local programmes, and the idea was to give quality services for under fives only in disadvantaged areas then it was so popular and so well accepted by families that the government gave it the major change in 2003 and changing it to Sure Start Children's Centre which were gradually rolled out across England and at the peak they reached more than 3500 of these centres. And what was really nice about the centres was first they provided a physical place for parents to go to bring their children to interact with other parents and it has a wide variety of services which the parents can use. Ranging from early education services, parenting support, childcare, there were health visitors providing the visits there in the Sure Start centre. There were signposts for job search assistance. So think of it really, as a one stop shop for families with children under five. If you had a child and you needed help for health, for other reasons - so you wanted a childcare place, then you could just go to Sure Start centre. And it's also to be said that at its peak in 2010 Sure Start also received a third overall earlier spending as much as £1.8 billion a year. But then unfortunately after 2010 spending has fallen by more than two thirds, many centres have been closed, they've been scaled back or they've been renamed children's centres. Now you don't even hear Sure Start  or they have been integrated into family hubs. Christine Garrington  13:10   Yeah, so big changes over, over the piece there and your research on Sure Start has looked quite specifically at its effects on children's health which is, you know, really important and you started by looking at hospitalizations and links with that. What did you, What did you find there? Gabriella Conti  13:26  So we have a data set which contains the exact address and opening date of each Sure Start both local programs and children's centres so we were able to look at the origin of the programme and its expansion up to 2010. And then in England, we have a very good dataset called Hospital Episode Statistics where there is collected data on the universal patients using English public hospitals. So this is important because we can really have a very comprehensive look at the effects across all Sure Start centres for all England the local authority so it wasn't like a selected or a small sample. It was quite good administrative data. And so what we did - we essentially will be focused on the expansion period of Sure Start so as I say, 1999 up to 2010. So where there were all these centres opening up. And then we're looking at what happened essentially when you have access to Sure Start since they're in your area. And what we find, that we find very interesting effects which changed across the life cycle of the child. So first of all, greater access to Sure Start in your area initially increases hospitalization at age one and this shouldn't be really surprising, given that it's common in other studies as well and my reflect the fact that the programme would help referring the parents to proper health care in the case of childhood illness, but also brings their exposure to infectious illnesses from other kids being all in the same setting. However, what is really remarkable is that these early increases are more than outweighed by longer term effects. So as we look throughout childhood adolescence, we find that there is a reduction in hospitalizations. Christine Garrington  15:18   And there were even longer term benefits for these children as they got older weren't, weren't there? Talk us through, talk us through what those benefits were. Gabriella Conti  15:25   So we found is that exposure to an additional centre per 1,000 children at ages 0-4 average around 7% of hospital admissions at each file. Which goes up to 8% by the end of primary school, so age 11 and 8.5% by age 15, which is the final age of this study. Now this represents approximately 2800 fewer earlier hospitalizations at age five and over 13,000 hospitalizations prevented of 11 to 15 year olds each year. So that's quite a substantial number. It's pretty much an 8% reduction on the pre-Sure Start hospitalizations rate and this is all completely looking essentially at the peak level of Sure Start provision where there was one centre per 1000 children available throughout England. And what is really interesting, while Sure Start was for children under fives, we're able to detect impacts which are increasing over time and are able to detect them essentially 10 years after the children have aged out of eligibility. And if we look at the drivers of these reductions hospitalizations, we see that it's important conditions such as external causes, so things like injuries and also mental health related admissions in addition to infectious illnesses. Christine Garrington  17:00   Those are just really striking findings Gabriella and I know that you also tried to get a feel for the potential cost savings that Sure Start would have generated. What were you, what were you able to say about that? Gabriella Conti  17:11   Yeah, I think it's quite important is this not only to provide evidence so that a programme is effective, but that it also provides enough bang for the buck. And with Sure Start it is particularly important given as I said before all the money, which was spent at the peak of the expansion. So what we did in this case, essentially, we had on the one hand, the money that the government had provided, and so we computed in this way a cost per child which is really more like the amount of money that the government spent on Sure Start per child, and we computed this amount to be approximately £415 per eligible child which is lower by the way than the cost of other programmes. And then what we did we looked at our estimates, and we considered first of all, we costed only the results, which for which we found significant impact. So as I said, subset of external conditions in particular injuries and also poisoning, then infections. So respiratory, parasitic and then mental health as you can imagine, you know, those have huge cost. And we considered three different types of costs. So on the one hand, the reduction in hospitalization has a direct cost saving in terms of the healthcare sector, so you will have less money essentially spent because fewer kids are going to be in the hospital. And this is more like a short-term cost, the cost at the time at which we estimate the impacts. Then there are assorted indirect costs, so if parents don't have to spend time taking care of the sick child, they are not going to be absent for work. So it's all savings in terms of averted the loss of productivity, and also in case the parents need, for example, to buy additional drugs. And on the other hand, we also included the long-term cost. So, for example, injuries experienced by a child can have a serious long-term consequence. Mental health conditions, especially experience in adolescence, which is the time at which you will find that Sure Start significant to reduce hospitalizations also have very costly long-term consequences. And so when we add up all this benefits together - all this averted cost, we come up with number which is around £330 million. Now of these, approximately a little bit over 10% like £3.9 million is attributed to the direct cost saving to the NHS and the rest is from the longer-term averted cost. And given that we've computed the cohort, this is going to be a total cost of a little bit over £1 billion then these represent approximately a third of the spending on the programme. So taken together, the savings from reduced hospitalization offset around 31% of spending on the programme. And importantly, this is only considering health benefits. Our calculations haven't included yet any potential benefits in other domains such as for example education, social care or crime. Christine Garrington  20:34   Goodness me so just looking at health benefits alone some, some really important good things that would change and, and help children grow up to live better, healthier, happier lives, but also an incredibly cost-effective programme. One which really doesn't sort of exist in the same way anymore. So what are the key takeaways for policymakers here would you say?  Gabriella Conti  20:56   Yeah, unfortunately it's not been good in my opinion, that Sure Start has been dismantled so quickly. So first of all, I think a key takeaway. So one key message for policymaker and not that this is a hard one to deliver. Because there are policy cycles and usually policymakers work based on these policy cycles but good programmes might take time to deliver their benefits, but it's crucial that when a policy is decided, it has to be looked at the evidence and also it has to consider the long term benefits not only the upfront cost. Another important lesson I think, is that what probably made Sure Start so successful. Well, there are different components. I think one key component is to have everything in one place and to make it easier for the parents to access it. So having this suite of possible interventions and providing a place for parents to congregate and have access to resources. I do believe it's key and it's also the case that if you provide a variety of services, they are you know, their combined effects is not only the sum of the different ones, there are interactions and there are synergies. Among them. So now, you know unfortunately, Sure Start does not exist anymore. So there is this family hubs which are being shaped up and at least my hope is given that Sure Start no longer exists all these lessons will be considered into the shaping on the family hubs. And a particular part in this regard, there is a lot of talking about proportion at universities. Now one key finding that we have is that all the benefits that we find, for Sure Start are concentrated in the poorer neighbourhoods. So we don't find the particular benefit in the richer ones. And so this is important why? Because on one hand Sure Start did help to reduce inequalities but also because going forward an important lesson for the new services such as family hubs is that the model combining universal services with a narrow base focus of disadvantaged neighbourhoods can be a successful approach to earliest interventions. Christine Garrington  23:10   Inequality of socio-emotional skills: a cross-cohorts comparison and The health effects of Sure Start are research part funded by DIAL's Growing-up Unequal? The Origins, Dynamics and Lifecycle Consequences of Childhood Inequalities (GUODLCCI). More information is available on the DIAL website. Thanks for listening to this episode of our podcast, which was presented by me, Chris Garrington and edited by Elina Kilpi-Jakonen.  

Hello and welcome to episode 39.   This time we consider a public health intervention that had a positive effect on the reduction in  childhood obesity and the subsequent negative impact of withdrawing the funding for this service. The  health consequences are felt in childhood and in later years. As the article points out childhood obesity is important both in childhood and has long-term effects into adult health. From the paper the background information is read in addition to the abstract which points out the results of the change in the policy. The link to the article is in the notes. Happy listening https://jech.bmj.com/content/75/9/860    

Gordon Brown is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He served as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010 and is widely credited with preventing a second Great Depression through his stewardship of the 2009 London G20 summit. He was one of the first leaders during the global crisis to initiate calls for global financial action, while introducing a range of rescue measures in the UK. Previously, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history. During ten years at the Treasury, Gordon oversaw many of Labour's flagship policies and achievements, including the Minimum Wage, Sure Start, the Winter Fuel Allowance, the Child Trust Fund, the Child Tax Credit and paid paternity leave. Gordon served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Dunfermline East (1983- 2005), and for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (2005-2015) in his home area of Fife in Scotland. He is a passionate advocate for global action to ensure education for all. In his role as UN Special Envoy for Global Education, he works closely with key partners to help galvanise support for the new International Financing Facility for Education that proposes a groundbreaking way to finance education for every child. 

Welcome to episode 50 [originally broadcast on Wednesday 19 May 2021] of #mhTV​​​​​​​​​​​​​. This week we were due to speak to Emma Wadey about the Professional Nurse Advocate programme, which she is leading on. We had to postpone that session and in the space left, Nicky Lambert took the opportunity to interview Dave Munday about politics and nursing. Dave is lead professional officer (mental health) with Unite the union. He leads the professional support to the Mental Health Nurses Association and its members alongside a number of other professional groupings in the Unite health sector. He is a member of the Mental Health Nursing journal editorial board, and alongside Vanessa Gilmartin Garrity and Nicky Lambert, is a founder and producer of #mhTV. Dave qualified as a registered nurse in 2001 and as a registered specialist community public health nurse (health visitor) in 2002 having studied at Manchester University where he won the John Owens Award in his graduation year. He worked as an auxiliary nurse and then staff nurse at Tameside Hospital and a health visitor in Salford (the birthplace of health visiting) and Tameside (the birthplace of Dave). He also worked as a Sure Start health coordinator and in the local authority leading on the Every Child Matters 'be healthy' pathway. In his spare time he used to run and cycle although this has now been replaced with vaccinating people against COVID-19. Some Twitter links to follow are: NL - https://twitter.com/niadla​​​​​​​​​​​​​ DM - https://twitter.com/davidamunday​​​​​​ Credits: Presenters: Nicky Lambert & Dave Munday Guest: Dave Munday Theme music: Tony Gillam Production & Editing: Dave Munday

Dr Anne-Marie Boylan and Dr Laura Griffith, ​explore the value of qualitative health research and discuss what it's really like to undertake qualitative research. Qualitative research is a naturalistic mode of inquiry. It is used to answer a variety of research questions that have relevance to health policy and practice. In this podcast, Dr Anne-Marie Boylan, Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Qualitative Health Research Methods at the University of Oxford, and Dr Laura Griffith, a former academic who now works in public health, explore the value of qualitative health research and discuss what it's really like to undertake qualitative research. Speaker biography Dr Laura Griffith completed her PhD in Anthropology about Motherhood in the East End in 2006 completing research in London and Bangladesh. During this time she also worked as a consultant and was the Chair of the Management Board for Sure Start and actively involved in other public health projects. From there she started as a Research Fellow in Warwick as the PI for a project investigating the experiences of minority ethnic populations of acute psychiatric services. Next was leading a project at Aston University about multi-professional team working in Mental Health teams, and from there she moved to the Health Experiences Research Group, University of Oxford, where she completed modules on psychosis, giving up smoking and experiences of ECT for the renowned healthtalk.org. She went on to lecture at the University of Birmingham in the sociology of health, and led the Health and Well-being stream in the Institute for Research into Superdiversity. At Birmingham she left the academic side of health research and moved into health consultancy - normally working with partners from the third sector. She now works in public health. Date: 18 May 2021

Guests:Professor Peter Fonagy is the Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL and the National Clinical Adviser on children and young people's mental health at NHS England. He is the Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London, which is particularly poignant as he himself found help as a child refugee at the Centre. Dr. Karen Bateson is the Head of Clinical Strategy and Development, Parent-Infant Foundation and is a Clinical Child Psychologist who has worked in the NHS for over 20 years in early intervention, Sure Start and NHS CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). Dr Bateson's work focuses on the importance of the first 1001 days of life from conception, perinatal mental health, and how best to support families, and forms part of the First 1001 Days Campaign.Jabeer Butt has worked in and with the voluntary sector to promote race equality and address health inequalities for many years. He was awarded an OBE in 2013 for his achievements in health and is currently the Chief Executive of the Race Equality Foundation. He has gained an international reputation for the use of evidence in developing interventions that help overcome discrimination and disadvantage.In this episode, the group discuss the importance of early experiences, such as good contact with a responsive adult who is sensitive to needs in order to build trust and secure the best foundations for mental health throughout life. Attachment, predictability and sensitivity are fundamental building blocks determining how we interact in the world. Parent influence early on shapes who we are as human beings, even down to nappy changing moments. Peter describes it as ‘the foundations of life' with 3 principles:Self esteem – how to develop good self esteem Self discipline – controlling behaviour with parents and when they are out in the world Social competence – managing relationships in a supportive manner If these are not developed, it can impact relationships, empathy and problem solving throughout life. The group discuss process of ‘mentalising', the impacts of micro-traumas and how people see themselves. Turning to what action can be taken, rather than trying to prevent abuse and maltreatment, the group discuss promoting positive childhood experiences through good attachments with positive adults. They talk about joined up thinking so that families can access a continuum of support, universal, targeted, specialist services as well as a workforce development strategy so that all professionals receive training in infant mental health. Taking a whole school approach is another example - changing a community by helping everyone in the school environment see each other as human beings and develop supportive relationshipsContacts:@Stu_King_Hh@PeterFonagy@ParentInfantfFDN & @KarenJBateson@ButtJabeer

In this podcast we talk to Professor Eva Lloyd OBE, Professor of Early Childhood in the School of Education and Communities at UEL. Eva is also Director of The International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare (ICMEC). Eva discusses social exclusion and child poverty, what looks and feels like for those who are in it. Why early years provision is treated so differently than to later educational provision in the UK. Eva looks at the history of early years childcare, Sure Start, the marketisation of childcare, and the impact children growing up with disadvantages. Plus Eva looks opening up the debate and influencing policy in relation to childcare, and how the pandemic is impacting on early years childcare.

There's nothing wrong with a slow start as long as it is a sure start. The Sure way to start a venture is to start how God started,start with the Word. Let's go

A study has shown that children's centers in England are being shut down due to lack of funds despite being beneficial to poor children. The UK Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) released the results of a study about Sure Start, a government initiative that is geared toward parents and their children. Sure Start centers offer services that promote the health, education and welfare, and emotional progress of children, especially in poor communities. The centers also give advice to parents regarding childcare and employment. The IFS study sought to determine what impact Sure Start centers had on the health of children. The study revealed that between 1999 and 2011, Sure Start centers helped significantly reduce the number of hospitalizations for children up to 11 years old. Having access to the health services provided by Sure Start centers kept children from needing to be hospitalized for infections or injuries. Education given to parents about childrearing, children's health and safety, and ways to improve children's behavior also helped lower the rate of hospitalizations. However, although the study revealed that Sure Start centers benefit children tremendously, it also found that funding for the centers has been dwindling. From having over $2 billion worth of funding in 2009, Sure Start's budget has decreased by two-thirds since 2010. This resulted in around 500 centers closing down between 2011 and 2017. An IFS researcher said that with decreasing funds, local authorities should determine where the centers can make a world of difference. She proposed that limited resources should be allocated to the construction of centers in the most destitute areas.

Edinburgh Council's Leader, Cllr Adam Mcvey, is marching the issue of tourism tax all the way to Holyrood. We speak to him about what he's learned from the process about developing a solid evidence base and reaching out to less-than-enthusiastic stakeholders. Back in London, LGiU spoke before the CLG Select Committee this week about the future of council finances in the current uncertain context, and the importance of building a local taxation system that actually supports life-or-death services. Plus our regular roundup of LGiU member content including briefings –  on the Finnish basic income experiment and permitted development – and highlights from our Daily News emails – featuring updates from Northamptonshire, "the world's greenest football stadium", the effectiveness of Sure Start centres and Cornwall's space-age ambitions. Hosted by Ingrid Koehler and Jennifer Glover. Interview by Kim Fellows. Tweet us @LGiU

The Labour AM for Cardiff Central tells of her journey to the Assembly via Latin America, a career in journalism and heading up a Sure Start programme for disadvantaged parents.She speaks on inequality, the Labour party resignations and her controversies; Her criticism of the M4 Relief Road, and her suspension for comments made about the Jewish community.And the former chair of the All Wales European Programme Monitoring Committee says a no-deal Brexit would be like suicide. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're back this week with another round from polling expert ("poll-lord") Sir John Curtice, plus we look into whether the 'national wage rise' is real (probably not), and why the government funding Grammar School's is so painful. ___ WEEK IN BULLSH*T - A 0.4% rise in real wages has been widely reported this week. Following the street parties that swept the country after the news, we dissect how this is not only long overdue - but also probably not true. Lies, damn lies, and statistics... ___ FEATURE - John Curtice, pt.2 Raj gets back to talking to polling expert John Curtice. We talk the 'polling upsets' of the 2017 election, Brexit and Trump - and the ins and outs of his notoriously accurate exit poll, which Raj accidentally implied was easy and got roundly schooled. Check out Pt.1: https://soundcloud.com/connectedanddisaffected/s2e24-poll-position-ft-sir-john-curtice ___ RIGHT WING WATCH Grammar schools are back on the agenda after more funding from the Government. We talk about how they don't work and compare it with the gutting of an actual evidence-based policy from the last Labour government - Sure Start. ___ Like what you hear? Support us by... Following on Soundcloud! Subscribing and Reviewing on ITunes – itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/connected-disaffected/ Following on Twitter – twitter.com/CandDPodcast Following on FB – www.facebook.com/connectedanddisaffected/ Email your comments and ideas - connectedanddisaffected@gmail.com

Airman First Class Sarah Mitchell gets schooled on a program that helps children with the earliest stages of learning.

Sure Start was one of the flagship policies of the Labour years, and the Coalition Government has just underlined its commitment to keeping it going. But in this edition of Analysis Fran Abrams asks a question. To many, it's a seriously heretical one: is Sure Start worth saving? Twelve years and £10 billion since it began, some are still struggling to describe what Sure Start has achieved for children.

Prime minister David Cameron takes questions on the evacuation of refugees from Libya and the Sure Start nursery scheme from Ed Miliband and other MPs

Transcript -- An initiative in London created to assist and support underprivileged families in bringing up their children.

An initiative in London created to assist and support underprivileged families in bringing up their children.

Professor Michael Marmot outlines the key recommendations from the WHO Commission for the Social Determinants of Health