Parents Poverty and the State, twenty years of evolving family policy.

Seminar Abstract

Naomi Eisenstadt was first director of Sure Start and ran the programme for 7 years. This talk will describe the creation of Sure Start, the political aims that led to its creation, its development from local programmes into Children’s Centres, and what the two major evaluations can tell us about where we should go next on community based support for families with young children.

About the speaker

Naomi Eisenstadt is currently a Research Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at LSE and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.  After a long career in the NGO sector, in 1999 Naomi became the first Director of the Sure Start Unit. The Unit was responsible for delivering the Government’s commitment to free nursery education, the national childcare strategy, and Sure Start, a major programme aiming to reduce the gap in outcomes between children living in disadvantaged areas and the wider child population. After Sure Start, Naomi spent 3 years as Director of the Social Exclusion Task Force, working across government to promote policies to address the needs of disadvantaged groups. Since retiring, Naomi served for two years as Independent Advisor on poverty to the First Minister of Scotland. She has published a book about Sure Start, two major reports for the Scottish Government and several articles and blogs. Her latest book, written with Carey Oppenheim comes out in October 2019, Parents, Poverty and the State.