Helping parents do the best for their children

But that all changed when Eric and his wife Nicola found a children's centre on their estate, which not only gives them a chance to meet other parents of young children but also gives them the opportunity to chat with childcare experts.

The centre, Westlands and Neighbourhood Nursery and Development with SureStart (WANDS), has been serving parents on Droitwich's Westlands estate since May 2003 and it was Worcestershire's first full-blown children's centre.

It could soon find itself playing an important role in the Government's bid to educate children from birth. The Childcare Bill announced last week proposes laws requiring every childminder and nursery to teach the new curriculum to children from birth until they start school at five.

As it is, WANDS has given help to parents like Eric and Nicola and their four children, which they never thought possible before.

Eric, aged 49, says: "This is best thing that's ever happened to this estate. We love it. Without it we wouldn't have anything to do all day except look at our four walls.

"Before this we didn't really mix with people but since we've been coming here we've made new friends and we've gone with the children on some great trips.

"It's great because they've taught us skills we never thought we would be doing like cooking.

"I learnt how to cook curries which I'd never done before. The children were really shocked that I'd done it. I haven't tried it out at home yet though."

SureStart centres like WANDS were launched in 1999 by the Government in an effort to bring together early education, health, childcare and family support for the benefit of young children and their parents living in disadvantaged areas of the country.

The catchment areas of such centres cover the places in the UK which are among the most 20 per cent deprived in the country, where a high proportion of children are living in poverty. Due to a reorganisation, the responsibility of centres such as this is being handed to Worcestershire County Council.

The reason why so many parents at WANDS - which has always come within the county council's remit - come to rely on the service is because it gives them access to facilities on their doorstep without having to struggle across busy roads with a pushchair into the centre of Droitwich.

"Things have been so much easier since we found this place," says Eric, who cannot work and is on incapacity benefit.

One of the people who helps out parents at WANDS is health visitor Carolyn Marshall.

She is in no doubt about the benefits.

"We give advice on minor ailments, behavioural problems, whether their child is reaching her milestones, that kind of thing," she says. "I think the way in which families can come and access the support of professionals is improving all the time. From a health point of view and from a social and education point of view, it's about improving the lives of young families. They need to be actively involved in improving the potential of young kids for the next generation."

Childcare provision has changed a lot in the past few years and will continue to develop if the Government has its way, with the proposed extension of the national curriculum to babies.

Criticism has come from the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations which called the proposals "bizarre".

Spokeswoman Margaret Morrissey said: "We are now in danger of taking away children's childhood when they leave the maternity ward."

Back at WANDS, the latest session over, the Davies family leave knowing that their two youngest daughters Jodie, aged two, and Amy, aged one, are healthy and that they are giving them the very best start in life.

BLACKBOARD

All pupils face bullying threat

SCHOOLS are facing an epidemic of bullying, according to the Government's children's tsar.

Children's Commissioner Professor Al Aynsley-Green said nearly every child was affected by the problem.

"I have no doubt that children are being brought up in a society where violence is the norm in many ways. I include in this the violence on television, in the workplace and in the home," he said. "I have had hundreds of in-depth conversations with children since accepting this post, and I can tell you that the one thing every child I have met has been affected by, with virtually no exceptions, is bullying."

He said he would use the launch of England's Anti-Bullying Week from Monday, November 21, to ask the Government to compel all schools to present every pupil in England with a termly questionnaire on the subject.

Bad behaviour is in the mind

BRAIN changes could be responsible for unruly behaviour and low academic achievement of teenage boys, according to the latest research.

Preliminary findings from a University College London study found that boys' social skills plummeted when they entered puberty but then rose later.

The same was not true of girls, whose abilities in this area continued to rise as they grew up.

The findings could have implications for understanding the 'dip' in boys' results in the first few years of secondary school.

Dr Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, who conducted the study, said the research also called into question the fairness of handing out anti-social behaviour orders to teenage boys whose brains were still developing.

Stay inside and play on the PC

CHILDREN from Worcestershire want to cast aside their games consoles and TVs in favour of getting dirty outdoors, but 'dirt phobic' parents object, according to research by Yell, publisher of Yellow Pages directories.

The study of 2,000 children in the UK aged between four and 11 reveals that two-thirds of children in this region want to spend more time outdoors getting grubby and green fingered.

Of these, less than a third prefer watching TV and 24 per cent prefer playing video games over playing outside. A fifth, who would like to spend more time outside, say their parents don't let them in case they get dirty. Children from this area spend a daily average of 81 minutes playing outside.