Starmer told to resurrect Sure Start to help poorest

Labour grandees have called on Keir Starmer to put a new Sure Startstyle programme at the heart of his election manifesto as new research shows its transformational impact on poor children.

- Sally Weale

Gordon Brown, the former prime minister who first announced the Sure Start initiative as Labour chancellor in 1998, is among those urging the opposition leader to prioritise the early years last night.

He told the Guardian: "The wilful destruction of Sure Start and the reductions of children's benefits after 2010 has set back opportunities for millions of children's futures. That's why our country desperately needs a new Sure Start."

Three former Labour education secretaries added their voices, among them David Blunkett, who said a reinvention of the policy was "crucial to the wellbeing of so many young people in the years to come".

The programme, which set up "one-stop shops" in disadvantaged areas bringing early years, health and family support services under a single roof, is widely regarded as one of New Labour's most popular and successful policies.

Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows for the first time how the programme generated significant improvements in the academic attainment of children from low-income backgrounds years later.

The analysis, published today, finds that children who were eligible for free school meals and had access to a Sure Start centre got GCSE results boosted by three grades - equivalent to the difference between getting two Cs and three Ds and getting five Cs - relative to similarly poor children without access to Sure Start.

The effect was most pronounced among children who benefited from Sure Start centres set up early in the programme, before 2003, which had bigger budgets and more successful outreach programmes, the IFS research finds.