Supporting Children and Families gathers together the lessons learned from perhaps the largest scale social experiment ever undertaken in England - Sure Start, the programme designed to improve the emotional development, health and education of children.

It boils down the huge amount of knowledge and experience generated by the Sure Start programmes and local evaluation studies, with chapters encompassing child development and healthcare, partnership working with existing local services, parental employment and supporting families with young children, reaching out to marginalised groups and strengthening communities. In addition to summarizing the findings of numerous innovative projects, contributors draw on their experiences of the successes and challenges to offer advice for those engaged in current and future practice. Each chapter concludes with `three lessons for Children's Centres'.

With its strong focus on practice implications, this book is indispensable reading for practitioners working in health, social and educational services for children and families, as well as students or researchers, and policymakers in these fields.

Contributions by: Graham Bowpitt, Alison Edgley, Marjorie Finnigan, Brid Featherstone, Sarah Chaudhary, Mairi Ann Cullen, John Carpenter, Valerie Wigfall, Barbara Sianesi, Miranda Thurston, Alissa Goodman, Pamela Graham, Sharon Hodgson, Pauline Hall, Matthew Pearson, Susan McQuail, Nicky Nicholls, Ann Martin, Martin Manby, Lynn McKenna, Geoff Lindsay, Jill Jesson