* Sure Start was set-up in 1999 to provide support for pre-school children and their parents. Head Start, an equivalent scheme in the United States, has been running for almost 40 years
* An initial budget of pound;200 million has risen to more than pound;1 billion a year, and will double again by 2008
* Gordon Brown has called for 3,500 children’s centres to be established by 2010. These will provide early years education, childcare and health services
* Research in the US shows that for every dollar spent on deprived children, $8 are saved in long-term social costs
