Waring and Netts has worked on many SureStart projects in different capacities and has gained valuable experience designing for younger children. We participated in the competition held by North Tyneside Council for the SureStart Centre at Howdon and have designed succesful new buildings at Cramlington, Berwick and Blyth. SureStart ABC Under the umbrella of SureStart ABC (Altogether in Blyth and Cramlington), with Barnardos as the accountable agency, the SureStart Partnership produced a detailed Delivery Plan which was our starting point in a development process leading to a Planning Application for Blyth and a continuing option appraisal at Cramlington. The Berwick design, which had met with considerable approval when shown to Barnardos, was developed as a generic plan which allocated discrete parts of the building to what we saw as its separate though linked functions: childcare, training for parents and administration, allowing access through the multi-functional space which now also includes a café. Further info The viability and versatility of this generic plan is shown in that it can accommodate substantial brief and area variations (457m² at Berwick, 610 m² at Blyth and 722 m² at Cramlington) and also permit linear expansion to facilitate changing demand. SureStart ABC has augmented the parent training aspects of the SureStart philosophy at both Blyth and Cramlington, with additional provision being made for care of the over fives at Blyth, and the intention of achieving Child Centre status in due course. Project management We also acted as project managers for SureStart schemes in Blyth and Bedlington. Both schemes feature a series of play areas for children between the ages of 0 and 4 years old, supported by flexible meeting rooms, interview areas and staff offices. Based on our experience and insight into design and construction methods we provided our clients with advice on a variety of issues, from procurement to delivery of the building on site, to ensure that the architect’s designs were succesfully translated into quality buildings.