| Tuesday, 01 March 2005 | |
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Minister for Children tours Temple Hill Sure Start centre The Minister for Children, Young People and Families, Margaret Hodge MP, paid a visit today to the Sure Start centre at St Edmund’s Church Living Well Centre in Temple Hill. The Minister, who was joined by Dartford MP, Dr Howard Stoate, was taken on a tour of the Centre by Rev. Bob Callaghan, the Centre’s Manager, before meeting Sure Start staff, volunteers and service users. Dr Stoate said, “the Dartford Sure Start programme is a very important initiative that provides a wide range of services to local families including antenatal support, home visits by qualified midwife and health visitors; speech and language therapy; smoking cessation groups; young parents groups; training courses for parents on a range of subjects including self esteem, women's health, nutrition and weaning workshops” “The Dartford Sure Start programme has only been open for just over two years but it has already made a real impact on the lives of the community. I am delighted therefore that the Minister has been able to visit St Edmunds and to see for herself some of the important work that the programme has been doing in Temple Hill.” Notes The Dartford Sure Start Local Programme has been running since September 2002 supporting 710 children and their families within Joyce Green, Littlebrook, Princes and Wilmington wards. Since the start of the Sure Start programme the percentage of pregnant women contacted by Sure Start during their pregnancies also increased from 18% to 31%; number of mothers breast feeding at birth increased from 31% to 49% and the number of mothers smoking during pregnancy has reduced from 50% to 29% In the short time the programme had been open to September 2004; the programme had made contact with 40 per cent. of the children in its catchments area. The community has also got involved in the development of the Programme, there are six parents on the Management Board and parents have also been trained to work on the planned consultation and evaluation of the programme. The programme is working towards developing children's centre status, and its proposals for Temple Hill children's centre (Joyce Green ward) have been approved. The St Edmunds Church Living Well Centre comprises a GP suite, the ‘First Byte’ Computer Centre, the Dads4Dads project (a support group for fathers and male carers on Temple Hill), a Sure Start facility and St Edmunds Church. Dr Stoate and Margaret Hodge are pictured (see attached) with 1) Children from the Sure Start programme and; 2-3) Parents and their Instructor involved in a DIY and Home maintenance workshop organised by Sure Start. |
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