Wick Windfall

The Government pot of cash has been earmarked for disadvantaged areas such as the town s Ham and River wards, as soon as paperwork has gone through.

The Sure Start scheme windfall was announced by Education and Skills Secretary Estelle Morris just a few days ago, as part of a massive 400m expansion of Government-funded health and welfare services for babies and young children.

She said: Sure Start is about improving the life chances of young children in disadvantaged areas.

That means better access to health care, early education, childcare, family support and advice on parenting.

It makes a tremendous difference to young children s learning and development and provides a flying start, rather than leaving children trapped in social disadvantage.

She added: This sort of cash could prevent problems before they became too difficult to solve.

Leading the project is a delighted Mark Barkaway, Sure Start Outreach Worker, based at the WIRE (Wick Information Education Recreation) in Wick.

He said: Sure Start is about lots of different organisations and agencies working together as equal partners.

The steering group involves representatives from education, health, social services and local parents. The group wanted the WIRE to take the lead and have an employee running the project, which was me.

The money s there for the Arun district, so we can t necessarily say it s going to be in Littlehampton, but we are pretty certain it will be for Ham and River.

We ve spent the last six months researching the area and consulting parents, finding out what they want.

What s come out so far is things like more affordable and reliable childcare, groups focusing on behaviour of children and healthy eating and nutrition advice.

For more on this story, see the Gazette, July 19.