RT Journal
A1 Guyer B
T1 Providing a sure start: How government discovered early childhood
JF Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
JO Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
YR 2012
FD July 1
VO 166
IS 7
SP 680
OP 680
DO 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1905
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1905
AB 
The UK government initiative Sure Start may be the most important contemporary nationwide effort to address the needs of preschool-aged children, and this volume by Naomi Eisenstadt tells the inside story of its gestation, birth, and first decade of life. Conceived at the beginning of the administration of Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sure Start was launched in 1999; by 2010, it served 2.5 million children through 3500 children's centers. Establishing this new effort required an unprecedented level of governmental planning, community involvement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and agency cooperation (what the British call “joining up”). This book covers that process, from policy making to implementation to evaluation. There are lessons to be drawn for the United States, where such a national investment in early life has yet to take place.