When pouring masses amounts of money into something makes little to no difference, oh go on then - just keep on doing it, keep throwing away that cash. No it's not about schools, truancy sweeps, children's databases or the NHS. This time it's Sure Start.
From a Spectator article 15th April:
"Brown...has commissioned an academic review of Sure Start, and its interim report six months ago did indeed show little to no impact from the £3.1 billion spent so far. But rather than end the experiment, Brown wants to roll out Sure Start across England by 2010 - pursuing the dream that the state can act in loco parentis."
5 comments:
just googled sure start Carlotta and I'm gobsmacked!! I hadn't heard of this , looks as if I got out of teaching just in time !! what are we supposed to do just hand them over at birth? It's awful and reminds me of the nazi state :-/
Dawniy
Hi Dawniy,
I completely agree and feel a combination of suffocated, terribly sad, and scared.
I thought they'd already abandoned the mass-surveillance-of-the-working-classes scheme in favour of the new Children's Centres (which allows mass-surveillance-of-all-classes)...
Cx
There is so much to argue with here, it's hard to know where to start! Not the least, the fact that apparently:
" quality early education is the most important factor bar none in determining a child’s life chances"
Just how do they manage to conclude this and make 'education' mean interference by professionals!
However - one other issue jumped out - this idea that pushing all people into paid work is good.
France has had masses of very early childcare available to all for a long time in the effort to get all adults out to work. Today, though, they have riots from the huge mass of unemployed youth.
But undoubtedly the chain of cause and effect is a lot more complex.
D
There are some good parts to Sure Start - it supported a breastfeeding support group in my local town, where I found lots of ppl who were open to my style of parenting. Nice.
But I wasn't actually within their postcode area, so I didn't get the free lunch, despite the fact I'd had to travel further to get to the group :( And there is no breastfeeding support group in our village, or indeed anything else really - we're not a sure start area.
That's the bit that irritated me most about it, the idiotic way they determined who needed support. Stuff actual situations, it all came down to postcode. Horrendous way to decide anything.
It's just another way of inefficiently throwing money around.
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