Sure Start's value has been proven time and time again - The Yorkshire Post says

Today’s conclusions about the success of Sure Start centres in averting hospitalisations amongst children reinforce the importance of continuing to fund programmes of early-years interventions properly.

For our region, this matters greatly. Yorkshire has pockets of severe deprivation in which both the health and life chances of children can suffer because of no fault of their own, or of their families.

For these young people, the Sure Start programme introduced by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 1999 has been a lifeline. It has offered both practical help and moral support to families which might otherwise have struggled.

Now, as today’s report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies demonstrates, it is apparent that the programme is doing much more, by preventing the hospitalisation of 13,000 children between the ages of 11 and 15 each year.

This is vitally important work, not just for the sake of the children, but for the NHS, which is already under more than enough pressure as it is.

There are those within the Government who have long regarded Sure Start with suspicion, and even hostility, because it was a flagship Labour policy. The past 10 years have seen constant pressure on its budgets, and there are fears that this autumn’s spending review will see them cut.

This must not happen, because the welfare of children transcends party political lines.