Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what lessons her Department has learned from the preceding roll out of (a) Sure Start Sure Start Local Programmes and (b) Sure Start Children’s Centres.

​​Ensuring every child has the best start in life, the chance to achieve and to thrive, are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.

​Research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has shown that access to Sure Start local programmes and Sure Start children’s centres in early life generated widespread, long-lasting benefits, improving children’s health and educational outcomes and reducing the prevalence of identified special education needs and disabilities (SEND). Building on these lessons, we are strengthening the early years system through Best Start Family Hubs to provide essential support for parents, improve health, education, and wellbeing, and offer a single access point for services, including a digital offer, targeted in the places we know will make the most impact.