The report, Delivering services to children and families in rural areas: The early lessons from Sure Start, said that while most urban Sure Start programmes are targeted at neighbourhoods where a high proportion of children are living in poverty, 'in rural areas deprivation tends to be geographically scattered, which makes targeting much more difficult'.
The report examined the work and impact of ten programmes stretching from Northumberland to former mining villages in Derbyshire and China clay communities in Cornwall. It found the deprivation indices used to select urban areas for Sure Start with a focus on 'small, socially homogenous populations living in identifiable areas' did not apply to rural districts because of their social diversity.
The report said the first task was to overcome scepticism, reflected in the China clay area of Cornwall, where 'repeated short term, well-meant initiatives by a variety of agencies' had created 'wariness and a reluctance to get involved in what may turn out to be another false dawn'.
The community was engaged through seven rounds of focus groups, with the results fed into a working group consisting of a representative from each village and key agencies. Recommendations were then submitted to the Sure Start programme's management board.
The agency report noted that the original concept of Sure Start programmes was to have a 'high-quality building' providing services within 'pram-pushing distance'. But of the ten programmes surveyed, only North-East Derbyshire spent all its capital on one facility.
Oswestry in Shropshire used its capital allocation to create five family centres attached to primary schools - two within the town and three in nearby villages. Each centre is open during school hours and offers a range of services including family play, a midwifery drop-in, parents'
information and advice sessions, a childminding group and an under-fives drop in.
The report said that while this model 'gives the children a head start by familiarising them with the premises and the staff', such a level of commitment requires 'a large staff team', and the core staff team of 33 'is almost three times the number of staff in an urban programme which may run one family centre with a core team of 12'.
Mobile facilities and outreach services also play a key role in enabling the programmes to reach isolated rural areas. In West Somerset, CLOWNS, a voluntary organisation providing mobile play sessions, now has a new van specially adapted so that a health visitor can examine babies and also an area for consultations with parents.
