Baby massage classes, breastfeeding support, early intervention for children with special needs and advice on hair clips for nervous dads were just some of the multiple benefits of Sure Start, according to parents who used the service.
“My Sure Start centre had wings and a halo,” is how one grateful parent puts it. “I would have been lost to postnatal depression if it wasn’t for our local centre,” says another. “Sure Start steadied me, held me, kept me from being lonely,” adds another parent. “It was good for me, my family and the community.”
Following calls earlier this week from senior Labour figures for Keir Starmer to put a new Sure Start-style programme at the heart of his election manifesto, readers have contacted the Guardian about their own experiences of Sure Start.
It made them better parents and gave their children a better chance in life, they say, and they all expressed regret about its demise, including Matthew Pearce, a 52-year-old software developer from Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire.
“My son Sammy was born in 2008,” he says. “He has a genetic disorder. We didn’t know what was going on at the time. He was not moving around very much. My mother took him to a Sure Start and because of that early intervention and that early access to support, it pushed us into the system much earlier.
“Because we got that early start, we’ve always been in the system,” Pearce adds. “We’ve never had to fight. It’s heartbreaking seeing what’s going on at the moment. It’s unforgivable. The loss of Sure Start is one of the Tories’ biggest crimes.
“I see so many autistic and disabled children harmed by the lack of early access to help and support. For children with special needs it was an absolute disaster.”
Rebecca Lever, a 51-year-old marketing director from Cardiff, described how Sure Start had helped her mental health. “I had my child aged 32,” Lever says. “My family lived over four hours away and I was full of anxiety about being a mum. I was spiralling into postnatal depression and my health visitor directed me to a Sure Start centre.
“I went to a baby massage class and while I am not sure whether the massage did anything for my baby, the advice and support I got from the staff and the other mums really helped my precarious mental health. We started to call the group ‘Is this normal?’ as that’s what we asked each other most weeks. I will be eternally grateful.”
Andrea Thomas, a 53-year-old part-time student from Guildford, took all four of her children to her local Sure Start centre following her first child’s positive experience after being diagnosed with severe autism and later severe learning disabilities.
“He was nonverbal, kept absconding and he was impossible to toilet train,” she says. “I was then told by his private nursery that they were no longer able to meet his needs and so he would have to leave.
“With no family help, and a husband working long hours in London, it felt like an increasingly impossible situation. I contacted our local Sure Start centre, who were immediately helpful.
“Not only did they offer him a fully funded full-time place, they were also able to assess his special educational needs so that he had statement – now replaced by an education, health and care plan (EHCP) – in place long before we applied for school places. He received 1:1 support during his entire stay at the children’s centre, so that he was kept safe and able to access play as much as possible.
“There were workshops on healthy eating/feeding toddlers,” Lever remembers. “There was training to help young (often teenage) mothers back into work. It also provided a sense of community. A cafe was set up, and parents from a diverse range of backgrounds were able to mix, support each other and make friends.”
Chris Freudmann, from Shrewsbury, described his Sure Start centre as having “wings and a halo”. His daughter was born in 2010 and after his wife’s maternity leave finished, he took on the primary care role, armed with very little experience.
“Fortunately there was a Sure Start centre across the road from my house. As a first time parent and of a daughter I had no idea how much life help I would need. I still remember the lessons in how to put in hair clips.”
Natalie, from Oxford, who did not want to give her full name, said her Sure Start centre was her “first and best source of support” as a new parent to her two-year-old adopted son who had add additional needs.
“There was a huge range of different people coming through the door – different needs and backgrounds all having support tailored to them that you never saw in the various paid groups in church halls.
“Without the support we had at the start of our parenting journey, we would have been really lost, and the time we had with access to support really helped us know how best to support our son, including starting the journey to getting our son’s EHCP so he had the support he needed when he started reception.”
Emma Speake was a single mother on benefits and had no qualifications when she took her daughter to Sure Start, where she ended up volunteering as a breastfeeding supporter.
“Sure Start helped me build confidence and believe that life could be different.” She went back into education, did two degrees and is now an ordained priest.
“Thank you for the gift of hope and confidence, Sure Start.”