In the Guardian earlier this year, Tony Blair was admitting that the Sure Start scheme for under-fives has failed. He went on to say that the Government 'has not yet found a way of bringing the shut-out into mainstream society.'
I would say that was a gloomy generalisation, although presumably it is based on a particular reading of the official evaluation. But it may be as questionable a statement as the Government's denial of reality when continually telling us that that the health service is in good shape. It's an interesting strategy - to be downbeat about a project that set out to offer services to the most disadvantaged in society, aimed at improving developmental outcomes for young children who have no voice of their own, and to be upbeat about another service that affects us all. Small children do not vote, and the population within Sure Start areas generally has a low turnout at election times.
However, I think that Tony Blair is, for once, not giving the Government enough credit. Measuring the outcomes of such a large, nationwide scheme where there has been very little common ground between the projects is very hard. Most of the data is a matter of determining numbers of people who have accessed what were meant to be completely new services. It is hard to number-crunch on a grand scale, when what really needs to be measured is the likelihood of individual babies getting off to a good enough start.
This is a matter of relationships. What needs to be recorded is nothing - nothing going too wrong. And in fact, that is possible and we have been doing it.
In our local Sure Start I have no sense that it has been a failure. It is obvious that everyone involved has created and nurtured good relationships with the parents in the area, so they in turn feel supported in nurturing their own babies and toddlers. I would not even say this has been an effort, as a sort of professional natural selection ensures that both centre- and community-based staff are naturally inclined that way.
Only relationships can change relationships. This is the cornerstone of effective early intervention, and almost impossible to quantify.
Robin Balbernie is a consultant child psychotherapist in Gloucestershire