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A mother who grew up in one of the most disadvantaged areas of the country praised the impact the Sure Start Initiative had on reviving her education and putting her on track to complete a PhD.
The pioneering Sure Start program began in 1998 and established centers or “one-stop shops” that brought together health and family support services under one roof for children under five and their parents. Although it is widely regarded as one of New Labour’s most successful policies, many centers have since closed.
Caroline Keep, from Halton, near Runcorn, Cheshire, said: I Living near a Sure Start Center during her pregnancy and motherhood not only gave her a better start and changed her daughter’s life, but also gave her the opportunity to change her own future. That’s it.
“My childhood was difficult because Halton is one of the most deprived areas in the country. I grew up on the council with my deaf and disabled mother,” she says, now 43. said. “My mother met and married her stepfather when I was 11 years old, and we spent most of my childhood in council housing.
“I was abused as a child and went to court when I was 15 and used the courts and the social welfare system. My mother and stepfather were wonderful and very supportive, but I didn’t have any other support at the time. It didn’t feel like that.
Ms Keep started her career in retail at the Children’s Society at the age of 16 and worked there for three years. Later, she became a stewardess and continued her job until she was 25 years old. During that time she met her now ex-husband, who is an airplane engineer from Iceland.
When Keep became pregnant with her daughter at age 25, she moved back to Halton to be closer to her mother and find support. Her marriage soon fell apart. Although she didn’t realize it at the time, she had undiagnosed autism, and it wasn’t discovered until many years later, when her own daughter was a teenager.
Keep felt embarrassed and confused about having her first baby, remembering, “I didn’t know what to do.” Furthermore, she added: She said: “I moved back to my hometown of Halton to be closer to my mother, but I didn’t know anyone else and felt alone.
“Having come from a difficult upbringing and a difficult past myself, I wanted to do everything right with my pregnancy and do a good job as a parent, but I had no idea what to do.
“Then, in the early stages of my pregnancy, I was sent to what was then called Brookvale Sure Start Children’s Center in Halton, and that was a very profound moment in my life. ”
Keep remembers how the staff and services at the Sure Start Center supported her in every way throughout her pregnancy, from what to eat to how to care for herself and her unborn child.
After her daughter Arora was born, Keep joined many mother and baby groups and activities at the center, which helped her make friends and never feel alone.
Keep strongly believes that Arora’s early education at Sure Start gave her the foundation she needed to perform at her best academically.
Sure Start also gave Keep an opportunity to reclaim her education after an interrupted school experience. Thanks to her heavily subsidized neighborhood daycare run by SureStart, she was able to attend college and earn her degree.
“I was the first in my immediate family to go to college,” Keep said. “With the help of Sure Start Nursery School and her mother, I was able to attend college and get an education because the childcare fees were generously subsidized.”
Mr. Keep earned a degree in geology from Liverpool John Moores University. Realizing the power of her early education to bring about change in her daughter, she completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in Physics and became a teacher.
She has won numerous national awards for her teaching, including the TES Emerging Teacher Award, and is currently a PhD researcher, developing digital tools in education using machine learning and artificial intelligence. We are developing.
Although Keep is still teaching while completing her PhD, she knows she would not be doing the job she is doing now if it weren’t for the impact Sure Start has had on both her and her daughter. I’m telling you that. She just got an A in psychology this week. A level mock exams.
“If there wasn’t a Sure Start center near where I lived, none of this would have happened,” she said. “All the support and opportunities Sure Start has given me have made a huge difference.
“For myself, after growing up in the 80s and 90s when there was nothing to support families like ours, this was my first experience with government support, and it actually made a big difference in my life. It made a difference.
“It was amazing at the time that there was so much support, free tuition and subsidized childcare.”
Children from low-income families who grew up near Sure Start centers performed better than other children at GCSEs, new research published this week by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has revealed.
There are growing calls for Labor leader Keir Starmer to make a new Sure Start-style program a central part of his election manifesto, following research showing the scheme’s transformative impact.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that 11 years later, children who lived near Sure Start centers when they were five years old, especially those from low-income families, had “significantly improved” GCSE results. ”, she said. In Keep’s experience, this is overwhelmingly true.
“My ex-husband lived in Iceland, so Arora spent her first 12 years with me in the UK, and then 5 years in Iceland. She is fluent in English and Icelandic. I currently have two qualifications.
“She has an Icelandic high school diploma and when she returned to the UK she took six GCSEs in six months and achieved eights and nines.
“She is currently doing her A-levels, achieving excellent results and has ambitions to go to Stirling University to study clinical psychology.
“But I think things would have been very different had she not received her early education at Sure Start.”
With most Sure Start centers closed and calls for Labor to prioritize childcare support in its next manifesto, Mr Keep fully agrees that Sure Start centers will never close. argue that it should not have been done.
“The SureStart center I used to be one of the few that has limped along is now owned by another company and operated as a children’s center hub,” she said.
“There used to be at least 10 Sure Start centers in Halton, but now they have all closed and only about two remain.
“Sure Start has completely changed my life. There are no places like that anymore. You can just come in there and say, ‘I’m struggling,’ and someone will always be there to help you.” I knew.
“Sure Start Centers should not have closed because it made economic sense. Early intervention and access to opportunity gave her the opportunity she needed to get an education and get a job. I was able to contribute to society by giving a future to the people of Japan.
“This made the difference between my daughter growing up like me, struggling and living on council land or surviving on benefits. I took it, earned enough money, and am doing well for myself.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “As this report shows, SureStart spending at its peak will represent just a quarter of current total early years spending.”
“The current spending includes the largest investment in childcare in UK history, which will be transformative for children and families.
“We continue to invest in Family Hubs, which now cover half of all upper tier local authorities and support children with special educational needs until they are 19 or 25. It offers many advantages over the Sure Start model, including access to “disability”, broader support, and an evidence-based focus on the critical 1001 days of a child’s life. ”