A NORTH-EAST academic has been awarded £140,000 to evaluate the Government's Sure Start programme.

Professor Nigel Malin, of the University of Sunderland, will spend the next three years examining the effectiveness of Sure Start, which aims to raise aspirations, lifestyles and education among families from disadvantaged communities.

Prof Malin, who is being funded through Sure Start, will analyse five of the seven programmes running in Sunderland.

He will research how well the programmes meet the needs of those families that the Government is targeting in areas like Town End Farm, Hylton Castle, Penshaw, East Rainton and Hetton and Houghton.

Sure Start's objectives are to improve social and emotional development; health, children's ability to learn and to strengthen families and communities. They include measures such as increasing childcare facilities, early years education, community/family support, extended health visiting, clinical psychology and paediatric support.

Prof Malin will assess how effectively the programmes achieve these objectives.

Sure Start is also an attempt to create partnerships and greater interaction between organisations such as social services, education authorities, volunteers and users to help meet the needs of children and families.

In 2001, Prof Malin received £65,000 to evaluate work carried out by Sunderland Healthy Living Centres (HLC) and Tyne and Wear Health Action Zone's Sure Start Plus project.

He said: "We are delighted that the university has won this very important work.

"The evaluation findings will help to strengthen the local provision. The Government wants evidence that these projects are working properly to ensure best practice, and the evaluations will help them to determine that.

"It's also about finding out what the customer wants. The evaluation will focus on what is best for them."