Sure Starts

Providing quality services to local children

Early Years plays key roles in 10 Sure Start partnerships, employing over 160 staff. Each programme offers a broad range of services focusing on family health, early years care and education and improved well-being programmes to children aged 0-4. Sure Start projects are fully funded by the Department of Education (DE), through the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB), for operational delivery of the programme.

The aims of Sure Start are to improve:

the ability to learn by encouraging stimulating play, improving language skills and the early identification and support of children with learning difficulties;
health by supporting parents in caring for children and promoting children’s health and development;
social development by supporting the development of early relationships between parents and children, good parenting skills, family functioning and early identification and support of children with emotional, learning or behavioural difficulties.

The key principles of Sure Start are to:

co-ordinate, streamline and add value to existing services for young families in local communities, including signposting to specialised services;
involve parents;
avoid stigma;
ensure lasting support;
be sensitive to particular families’ needs; and
promote participation of all local families.

Sure Start programmes have been designed specifically to reflect and respond to local needs. For that reason, each Sure Start project is unique in terms of the services it provides and the manner in which it provides them.

six core elements

There are, however, six core elements which must feature in any Sure Start programme:

Outreach and home visiting services, to make contact as early as possible in a child’s life and draw families into using other services;
Family support including befriending, social support and parenting information, both group and home based;
Good quality play, learning and childcare experiences for children (both group and home based);
Primary and community health care and advice;
Speech language and communication support;
Support for all children in the community recognising their differing needs.

Sure Start does not itself provide specialist services, projects need to ensure that their services are accessible to all families in the designated area.