Sure Start Speke

Hi everyone
This year we celebrate 5 years of Sure Start in Speke and what a time it has been; it seems like only yesterday when we had our launch over at Austin Rawlinson.

As Sure Start programmes nationally begin to wind down to what seems to some like a grim winter, with many tightening their belts at the prospect of reduced funding, not so for Sure Start Speke; we move forward with what I consider to be a rich harvest that will sustain and build upon our work to create an Early Year's environment in which our children flourish.

My short term focus at the moment is getting the organisation through the rigors of the charity commission, which will mean quite significant changes to our governance arrangements. It also means that like the many children who have traveled with us over the five years, we are stepping out on a new and independent route; our thanks to South Liverpool Housing Ltd who have given us their support as an accountable body for these past years.

Over the next few months we will be undertaking a lot of developmental work, retaining our independence as a Sure Start makes us quite unique in Liverpool but we feel that will allow us stay in touch with what families actually want; indeed we are working with partners and taking the lead on planning an annual parent conference the first of which will take place shortly. Charitable status will also allow us to bid for additional funding to the area that previously we have been unable to access.

One particular aspect of our service that we are keen to develop further is the work on play and communication. Play and early communication is critical to a child's development; whilst we do feel we have impacted on play provision in the local area we want to build on this and develop a funding strategy to ensure we can achieve this vision. We believe that we can work with parents to create a centre of excellence here in Speke for our children.

Already our Family centre nursery has achieved significantly with Ofsted who agree we offer a good provision in all areas of work and outstanding provision in the area of "enjoying and achieving". We are one of only 16 nurseries in all of England to have been awarded an outstanding standard in this area of work. This is amazing progress for a new staff team and new provision and we believe we have developed expertise that we can be proud of.

We are committed not only to delivering excellence in our centre but across all provision in the area and Lynn Coates our Early Years Consultant and Chris McRoe our Speech Therapist will be working with all schools and settings to develop best practice in all aspects of early years work in Speke.

Susan Roberts
Director