Please join the campaign to Save Our Sure Start

By Ed Balls MP / @EdBallsMP

If you want to see how our Labour government has been transforming services for families over the past twelve years, just go and visit one of our bustling, noisy, buzzing Sure Start children’s centres.

I popped into one recently and found: a parents and toddler stay-and-play group in full swing; a baby massage class under way; a group of 2 year olds getting special help with speaking and communication; and a debt advisor helping local parents.

Just think: we now have 3,500 centres like that round the country – and back in 1997 there were none. Not a single one anywhere. But today, as the Prime Minister and I saw at Hitherfield Children’s Centre in Streatham, we now have this new universal service in every community.

This hasn’t happened by chance. It’s happened because we’ve been prepared to back the Sure Start vision with the serious investment needed to make it a reality, right across the country.

And millions of people are pleased that we have. Parents often tell me their local Sure Start is as important to them now as their local school – a great service open to all, a friendly place that offers support, advice and childcare that helps the whole family. For Sure Start isn’t only for the under-5s and their mums as some people think – more and more centres are welcoming dads, brothers and sisters and grandparents in too.

And it’s not just the children and families who directly use Sure Start who gain from them; the neighbourhoods where they have opened are benefiting too. In many areas the children’s centre is becoming a focal point for voluntary groups and other local services, helping to foster a stronger community spirit.

But be warned – George Osborne has got Sure Start in his sights. The Tories have already said they want to cut the Sure Start budget by £200 million per year. That is the equivalent of one in every five children’s centres having to close, just at the time when families need them most.

The Tories have also said they want to strip back Sure Start so it is just for the poor. But that means thousands of families on middle and modest incomes denied access to the high quality childcare many depend on. Sure Start enables them to go out to work, confident their children are being really well looked after and getting a great start in life. Without it, how will those families and their children manage in the future?

It’s true that families on low incomes have a lot to gain from children’s centres, but it is also obvious that they won’t keep coming if going through the door singles them out as poor. The stigma that the Tories’ approach would bring means great local children’s centres that everyone is proud of would be under-used. What a terrible waste.

Focusing Sure Start just on the poorest families would be a big step backwards. It is also divisive: there should be no place for this kind of segregated approach today. Like the NHS, Sure Start must be available for all.

All parents can now access free education and childcare for three and four year-olds, but how would families cope with the extra costs that the Tories’ cuts would inflict on them? Scaling back Sure Start would also mean denying important maternity and health advice to expectant mothers, and stopping training for parents who want to return to work.

And once the Tories start cutting Sure Start you can be sure that they will be back for more, because they have the wrong priorities for Britain’s families. By cutting Sure Start and Labour’s Child Trust Funds and tax credits too, they would put in reverse all the advances we have made to help families and reduce child poverty.

The choice at this election could not be clearer. We know that every family sometimes needs the services children’s centres so brilliantly offer. That’s why Labour will continue to invest in Sure Start and ensure it stays open for families of all shapes, sizes and incomes.

So today we are inviting families, children’s campaigners and charities to join us in a national campaign to save our Sure Start children’s centres from David Cameron’s cuts. You can sign up at www.saveoursurestart.com.

Because with Labour’s future fair for all, every child is guaranteed the Sure Start in life that they deserve and our country needs.