The Latest Breaking News from Sure Start

Some councils are already spending up to 80% of their budget on social care and say costs are rising and increasingly unsustainable

Cuts ruin lives and raise costs. This scandal is already playing out in the system, and it should be a warning to Labour, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Although Cameron and Osborne have been rebranded as Tory moderates, look back to 2010 and you’ll see how much devastation they truly caused, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

Childcare features prominently in both major parties’ plans for work and personal finance. Keir Starmer wants to make early-years provision as universal as possible while the Conservatives claim they’re already transforming childcare and increasing funding to both boost children’s development and get mothers back to work.

Experts say Keir Starmer’s plans to cut serious crime levels are ambitious. The party also hopes to restore faith in the criminal justice system but with limited extra resources

A quarter of Britain’s children live below the poverty line. Near his Fife home, the former PM shows how charities help families and says this issue must be a priority for any government

Head of Church of England Justin Welby tells Observer that ending policy would lift thousands of children out of poverty

We know about the hardship of ‘Thatcher’s children’, but a new generation of Tories has raised inequality to even higher levels, says the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown

Former prime minister proposes £3bn support package for ‘blighted generation’, including Sure Start relaunch

A new report shows how transformational the initiative was. But Keir Starmer’s early-years plans lack the same vision, says journalist Terri White

Letters: John Bercow says the early years programme was a crucial life enhancer for millions of children and could be a key election battleground. Plus letters from Prof Gary Craig, Deborah Hayter, Keith Reed and Ian Wrigglesworth