Children have a right to play without treading on condoms and syringes.
Margy Whalley, research director at Pen Green centre for under-fives and their families in the former steeltown of Corby, waves her hands like a conjuror over a plain architect s model of a planned new extension to the centre s battered 1930s building. The centre, founded in 1983 just after the steelworks closed and quietly making a difference for local families ever since, has been granted early excellence centre status and funds in recognition of its work providing both quality childcare and support for the jobless and low-income families of the area. More recently, the centre has also become home to, and main partner in, one of the trailblazing first tranche of the government s Sure Start projects aimed at providing better services of all kinds for children under four and their families. For the buggy-pushing parents flooding in and out of Pen Green and its two outposts on estates across the town, the catchy labels invented by Labour s policy wonks may have little meaning. Local councils are highly involved in the Corby project and its fellow 60 pioneering Sure Start schemes around the country, but are obliged to cooperate with other agencies and work towards nationally set targets.