Jacqueline Barnes – författare

In the past decade the relationship between communities, children and families has inspired a wealth of research and policy initiatives because of a growing belief that the breakdown of families and communities is a significant factor in social problems, including child abuse and juvenile crime. The latest policy initiatives to tackle social problems have therefore targeted communities as well as high risk families.

This title amalgamates the latest research on the relationship between children, families and communities and explores policy and practice implications. Material for practitioners and community development workers is also be included. The book is divided in to three parts:1) theory2) the effect of community on children, parents and families3) interventions and policy implications.

The book will be of interest to anyone wanting to know more about how to improve the lives of parents and children. Special focus is placed on those families who face disadvantage, either in relation to personal vulnerabilities or in relation to living in neighbourhoods lacking in resources and facilities.

Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) was a major strategic effort by New Labour towards ending child poverty. By changing the way services were delivered to children under four and their families, through targeting and empowering highly-deprived small geographic areas, SSLPs were intended to enhance child, family and community functioning. Following 5 years of systemic research exploring the efficacy and impact of this grand experiment, this book pulls together, in a single volume, the results of the extensive National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS). 

The book reviews the history of policies pertaining to child health and well being which preceded and set the stage for Sure Start. It provides insight into how SSLPs were expected to function and how they actually operated, both in terms of their strengths, weaknesses and costs. The contributors examine the nature of the communities in which these programmes were situated and how they changed over time; present the early effects of SSLPs on children and families, with evidence highlighting some small beneficial effects and some small deleterious ones and extract specific features of SSLPs that contributed to whether individual programmes benefited children and families, providing a guide for the revision of programmes and policies.

With a foreword from Naomi Eisdenstadt, former Director of the Sure Start Programme and concluding chapter by Prof. Sir Michael Rutter, member of the government''s scientific advisory board overseeing NESS, this book provides an insightful critique of SSLP policy and NESS that will be of interest to students of child development, families and communities, as well as policymakers and policy scholars, local and national providers of services to children and families and evaluation specialists.