National SureStart Month

Stromboli developed an online database of events for National SureStart Month and integrated it with the Community and Content Management System. The website allowed organisers to register event, get ideas, download leaflets and logos and order promotional items. It allowed parents to find events in their area. The online database was used for all ordering and mailing of one and a half million promotional items, with call centre staff using a private area of the site to record telephone and postal requests.

• Over 4,000 events were registered in 2003


• Over half a million parents were reached


• Participants in the month ordered a staggering one and a half million promotional items


• Stromboli are developing the site further for 2004 in association with the National Day Nurseries Association

About National Sure Start Month

A record half a million parents learnt more about the childcare opportunities available to them during National Sure Start Month in June. Over four thousand events took place across the UK to enable parents and families to find out about the hundreds of support services available on their doorsteps from early education, to childcare, health and family support.

Family activities ranged from teddy bear picnics to fun days, beach parties, Caribbean parties, art exhibitions, sponsored sunflower plantings, story telling in libraries, sheep sheering to concerts. Participants in the month ordered a staggering one and a half million promotional items including balloons and stickers to support their activities and further interest in the month was shown by over thirty six thousand people who visited the month’s web site www.nationalsurestartmonth.com.

Sure Start month also had an unprecedented level of support from MPs across the country with one hundred MPs expressing their interest and many visiting an activity in their constituency.

Hazel Blears, Minister of State at the Home Office and Catherine Ashton, Sure Start Minister showed their support by taking part in the month’s exciting launch at London Zoo. The Ministers joined two hundred guests including many children, representatives from children’s charities and the childcare industry, at the launch which took the form of a Teddy Bears’ Picnic.

Sponsored by Sure Start, a new government unit in the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Work and Pensions, National Sure Start Month was organised by Kids’ Clubs Network in conjunction with the leading childcare charities including the Daycare Trust, National Childminding Association, National Day Nurseries Association and Pre-school Learning Alliance.

Catherine Ashton said, “National Sure Start Month has been a wonderful success providing an exciting vehicle for families and parents to find out about the many Sure Start services which are available in their local communities, to help support them in their busy lives. We are delighted by the exceptional level of interest from many sectors, which has been achieved by the leading childcare charities working together to highlight what is available to families and children every where”.