Maritz Vandenberg (Letters, 8 February) presents only a partial picture of the findings of the National Evaluation of Sure Start (Ness), which in fact show, in the researchers’ words, “only beneficial effects and no negative effects”. Yes, it is true that no effects of Sure Start intervention were found on children’s educational and behavioural outcomes at age seven, but the authors caution that there are possible reasons for this, such as the universal availability of free pre-school education for three- and four-year-olds, which will have also benefited the comparison group of children who did not experience Sure Start. Also, that early implementations of Sure Start focused more on support for parenting than for child development. In fact, the most positive, persisting effects of Sure Start are indeed shown by Ness to be improved family functioning, better wellbeing of mothers, improvements in home learning environments and less harsh discipline. Hardly “an expensive failure”.
John Oates
Senior lecturer in developmental psychology, The Open University
• If Frank Field (Letters, 8 February) believes helping low-income mothers, and not fathers, should be central to policymaking around Sure Start centres, he should consult his colleague David Lammy MP. Lammy recognised years ago that fathers should be accorded the same respect as mothers in the difficult job of bringing up children on a low income. Fathers also have mental health problems which can impact adversely on family life, especially if they’ve been wrongly accused of domestic abuse and denied access to their children by the mother. Frank Field should also consult the Gender Equality Duty 2007 brought in by his own government to provide fair access to public services for both parents, not just mothers. There is a mass of research pointing to the benefit, especially for young boys, of having their fathers central to their lives. Sure Start centres, and their like, should be working with fathers as well as mothers.
Elizabeth Mueller
Glasgow
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