As Cathy Wallace finds out, the early years initiative looks like it might finally be coming of age. "We're on a journey," children's minister Beverley Hughes told the hundreds of children's centre managers at their first national conference. "We're not at the end of the road. But the signs are positive." It's been a bumpy road. Since the first Sure Start trailblazer in 1998, the programme has been dogged by criticism. Sure Start has been accused of...