AN initiative to help and support families with children under the age of four has been proposed for Newton Aycliffe and Shildon.

Sedgefield Borough Council is to bid for Sure Start programmes to be established in both towns.

The council already supports a Sure Start programme in Ferryhill and Chilton, which has been a great success since it was approved two years ago.

The scheme is aimed at ensuring young children in less well-off areas get the best start in life through a range of educational and health projects.

Richard Prisk, the council's regeneration manager, said: "We are very happy with what has happened in Ferryhill and Chilton, because we have taken very much a community development approach.

"Clearly, to be a responsive service for families and children under four, they need to be fully involved in the whole process.

"One of the real successes in Ferryhill and Chilton is that parent and community representatives actively participated, to make sure that programme works. It has built up their confidence and ability to gain the kind of services they want to see delivered for their children.

"Parents have embraced it really well, and it is because we have taken a community approach, rather than saying we know what is best. That is what the ethos of Sure Start is all about."

The council is hoping to take the same approach in its proposed new programmes, covering the Shildon wards of Thickley, Sunnydale and Byerley, and the West ward of Newton Aycliffe.

The areas have been chosen mainly because statistics show they are rated among the most deprived wards in the country.

But Mr Prisk said: "It is not saying that the people in those areas cannot look after their children, it is the opposite. It is giving them support to give their children a better opportunity.

"Parts of the West ward - School Aycliffe for example - are very prosperous and there is no reason why those areas cannot benefit as well, or those areas just outside the ward."

The next stage is for the council to describe how it intends to develop partnerships with parents, particularly people with priority needs, make progress on recruiting core staff and set out an action plan.

A progress report has to be submitted to the Government by October, followed by a full Sure Start plan in January.