As part of the Daily Echo's Keep the Pride campaign, Vicki Green focuses on a drop-in centre for young mums and dads in Millbrook...

In an ideal world every child deserves the best start in life, whatever their background and circumstances. But residents of Millbrook may not be able to give them the start in life they would like to.

A government initiative called Sure Start aims to change this. Sure Start recognises that investing in our children's early development can have benefits that last a lifetime. The initiative provides this investment at a time in children's lives when it will be most effective - from birth to age four.

Sure Start brings together services for young children; statutory services such as health, social services, and early education, as well as voluntary and community organisations, and parents themselves. The scheme gets them working together to provide what local children need and their parents want.

Sure Start services are determined by local partnerships of those who provide the service and those who use it. Communities are best placed to know what works for them. It serves all the families who live in its area but the projects themselves are targeted at disadvantaged areas because children growing up in these areas often face more challenges than others. They and their parents are more likely to suffer from health problems and the children are less likely to do well at school.

Sue Thompson, project manager of Sure Start Millbrook, said: "Nationally Sure Start has been running for three years but locally in Millbrook it has been running for only five months.

"The Millbrook scheme is the newest in the city where there are already four branches of Sure Start running.

"Sure Start aims to achieve improvements in the lives of children under four. We work in a preventative way in communities.

"Pre-school is the most important time for children to learn and develop. Sure Start will provide more and

better services to support the healthy and happy development of babies and children aged under four years.

"We work closely with parents-to-be, parents, carers and children so that what is provided is based on what local people need.

"We bring together service providers and parents to make decisions and develop services. The services we offer are what parents really want, rather than what we assume they want," explained Sue.

The government has already approved £2m for the first three years of the scheme and it hopes to get a total of £6m over the next ten years.

Sue said: "The scheme will bring a number of improved services and support for childcare, play and other learning, parenting and family

support and improved health and development

"We have already had a number of new services in the Millbrook area that have been agreed.

"We have paid for two mobile midwives in Millbrook to work in the community. The mums can contact the midwifes any time of the day or night.

"Millbrook also needed health visitors to be based locally as many parents don't have the money or the transport to make their way over to Southampton General Hospital. We have provided that care.

"We also provide family support. We have staff who support families in getting to appointments and help with cooking and other day-to-day tasks.

Sure Start also runs a toy and book library and offers a drop-in service for parents so they can discuss any issues that they have.

Local dental care and a family link librarian is also planned for the future.

"Parents and carers are a crucial part of how decisions are made and will form at least 50 per cent of the Sure Start management board.

"Parents lead the services that we provide. We respond to what parents want rather than providing them with services that they don't want or that aren't needed.

"One of our most successful groups is the free soft play sessions that we run on Mondays in the All Saints church hall. We get a real mix of parents, both mums and dads and even grandparents. We also get a number of teenage parents too.

"The group gives the children the opportunity to mix with others their own age. It also gives the parents a chance to meet other parents and discuss parenting issues."

If you are interested in finding out more about Sure Start, contact project manager Sue Thompson on 023 8052 8526 or e-mail her at sthompson@nspcc.org.uk