In a question-and-answer session in Manchester yesterday, Cameron suggested that Sure Start services were being overrun by the "sharp-elbowed middle-classes".
"We've got to make sure we're focusing on the people who need help the most," he said. "Criticism of Sure Start is that the sharp-elbowed middle-classes get in there. We need to find those who are hard to reach."
But 4Children’s director of public affairs Claire McCarthy said that Sure Start services must continue to be offered universally, as they were originally intended.
"We agree with David Cameron that children's centres must do all they can to reach out to families who would benefit most from their services. Increasingly they are doing this, as outreach has been prioritised," she said. "But there are strong benefits to maintaining the universal base for Sure Start and 4Children is making this argument to government in the run up to the spending review."
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