Health and welfare officials made shaping future services look like child's play yesterday after inviting hundreds of youngsters to a party - while they collared their parents for their views.

As the children enjoyed a ride on Santa's special steam train, had their faces painted and were entertained by stilt walkers, a juggler and puppeteer, County Durham parents got down to the serious business of developing services for the under fours.

Their views were crucial to the spending of millions of pounds of extra Government funding allocated to deprived areas.

But health and council officials feared that parents in the Shildon and Newton Aycliffe area would not turn up to a traditional consultation exercise, such as a public meeting. So they threw a huge party for the children at the Timothy Hackworth Victorian Railway Museum in Shildon and button-holed the parents when they arrived for the fun.

The area is the latest recipient of Sure Start status and will receive extra cash to improve a host of services for children and parents. This will comprise £1 million for new buildings and adaptations and £750,000 a year for ten years to run services.

"We have already had a couple of evening meetings where only a few people managed to come," said Nigel Porter, chief executive of Sedgefield Primary Care Trust. "So we thought we would throw a children's party and that would give us a better chance of talking to people. It's also a celebration of securing Sure Start."

Sure Start targets under four-year-olds and aims to give them a good start in life by ensuring they and their parents have access to the best possible facilities and health care services.

These may range from initiatives to get children to brush their teeth and eat healthy food to providing stair-gates to stop them being injured in the home. It could also involve adapting a library to make it more child-friendly or providing a parents/children's centre with clinic or more therapy services and extra health visitors.

Mr Porter added: "The party is a way of letting people know about it. The whole idea is to ask parents what they need, what they are short of and whether the services we provide are the ones they want."

The Sure Start Team is made up of representatives from Sedgefield PCT, Durham County Council, Sedgefield Borough Council, Shildon Town Council and a host of community and voluntary groups.

Newton Aycliffe parent Caroline Jarmain said: "This has been a great way to get parents involved. I used to live in a Sure Start area in Leeds and it makes an amazing difference to families."