Communications activity can help ensure a Sure Start

Dr Helen Paterson, Executive Director of Children’s Services for Sunderland City Council, explains why supporting Sure Start Children’s Centres is high up on the agenda to ensure that children in the city get the best start in life.

The importance of Sure Start Children’s Centres

Only 10 years ago families in Sunderland didn’t have access to the invaluable advice, help and support offered by Sure Start Children’s Centres. Now, with 17 children’s centres located across the five localities of the city, parents and children are benefiting from the wonderful array of facilities. Services include childcare and early learning; health support; help for parents to find employment or training; maternity and post-natal support; activities for parents and children like stay and play sessions; and parenting classes.

At Sunderland City Council we are committed to supporting the Sure Start Children’s Centres within our community and always work collaboratively with them to ensure that as many families as possible know about the great work that they do.

Our PR and marketing staff work closely with Sunderland’s children’s centres to share skills, knowledge and experience and to encourage regular promotional activity.

Working together for the best results

Each month we host a marketing meeting which is attended by representatives from each of the localities, and a cross section of disciplines, to share and implement ideas for city-wide campaigns.

During National Sure Start Children’s Centre Week in September 2009, part of the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ (DCSF) national communications campaign to inspire more families in England to visit their local centre, we demonstrated the success of our collaborative approach by encouraging all centres in Sunderland to work together and create a giant paper chain.

Everyone that attends a Sure Start Children’s Centre was invited to add their own link to the chain, to create a visual representation of the many different services that make up the children’s centre programme. The exercise also highlighted the strong link that centres give to children under five and their families towards a better future. We ended up with a paper chain that was 105 metres long, and secured excellent coverage in the Sunderland Echo, our top-circulating regional newspaper.

Use real-life stories

Another way to provide families with key information about Sure Start Children’s Centres is to tell them the compelling stories of people who have already made use of services and have seen the benefits first-hand. This works so well because case studies bring the positive impact of children’s centres to life in a way that everyone can understand.

We placed the stories of a mum and a dad from Sunderland who both had inspirational stories to tell thanks to their local centre, in a national magazine and a local newspaper. Again, this led to excellent coverage that was seen by a potential audience of more than 100,000 people.

Laying the foundations for future communications

Raising the profile of Sure Start Children’s Centres is a key priority for the council so marketing and promotion is now built into service contracts for children’s centres. Commissioned service providers are given detailed training on promotions and marketing of children’s centres in their inductions, with continuing support from our own marketing team.

As we are in the process of developing funding agreements for schools that have Sure Start Children’s Centres on-site, part of our approach is now also to encourage headteachers, to become champions of the Sure Start Children’s Centres programme within their local neighbourhood of schools. Each headteacher in this role works closely with children’s centre leaders and receives help with implementing their own communications strategy to ensure all children and families have the opportunity to benefit from children’s centres in Sunderland. Headteachers also receive assistance with informing school governors about the children’s centre services, activities and developments.

To promote the core offer we are developing a family-friendly newsletter which aims to nurture the sense of community, and encourage families to utilise their centres as their children grow.

Support for local authorities

Young people and families have never needed our support more, and by making sure that there is a coherent approach to the way we promote Sure Start Children’s Centres, as many people as possible can hear about them, as simply as possible.

Our advice to other local authorities is clear – a collaborative approach is the best approach. Support is available thanks to the template materials and support that the DCSF provides on its Every Child Matters website – have a look for yourself and think about how you can give families in your community a Sure Start.

For further information, visit www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters and click on ‘Sure Start Children’s Centres’.