BELFAST Sure Start reps have met the Education Minister to press home the need for a fair uplift in their budgets.
Sure Start supports parents with children aged under four years old in disadvantaged areas across the North.
Sure Start reps from across Belfast and beyond met Paul Givan at Stormont to call for an increase in their budget in order to maintain the first-class service they provide for children.
Joy Poots from South Belfast Sure Start said: “Even though Sure Start has been funded by successive NI governments for over 23 years now and all the evidence shows that it is making a real difference, we are not statutory or ring-fenced so, quite truthfully, we are always at the bottom of the pile.
"The Minister asked us what we would need to put Sure Start back on a more stable footing and we have asked him for at least 10 per cent of an uplift.
"Given that the minimum wage alone has risen by 65 per cent in the last ten years, which unfortunately too many of our skilled Early Years staff are on, we believe that is a very reasonable ask.”
Mervyn Bell from North Belfast Sure Start added: “We welcomed the opportunity to explain to the Minister the vital role Sure Start plays in the most disadvantaged communities and he clearly was very understanding of that.
"However, we pointed out that an average uplift of one per cent each year over the last ten years has meant that rather than building up these early intervention services we are having to make cuts to posts or hours and programmes for families with young children."
Mairead Gilmartin from West Belfast SureStart said: “We believe we cannot develop more much-needed early intervention and children’s services without this proposed uplift in real terms – anything less than this will actually see a contraction of the existing services."
