CHILDREN caught in the poverty trap in the region were handed a £57.5m lifeline yesterday.

The Government announced one of its biggest ever childcare hand-outs to be spent on setting up and maintaining schemes to help babies and children, aged up to three, to get a good start in life.

Hundreds of letters are being sent out to child care experts in communities across the region to ask for their help in starting 23 Sure Start programmes aimed at eliminating child poverty in 20 years.

Each of the schemes, which will also help parents, could receive £2.5m in the next three years, depending on need.

Voluntary groups, health care organisations and child workers already run 30 Sure Start schemes across the region. The organisations undertake practical child programmes, such as toy libraries and establishing play areas, and work on activities to improve parenting skills and children's confidence.

There will be three Sure Start programmes each in Newcastle and Sunderland and two each in Gateshead, Middlesborough, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside and Stockton.

The districts of Darlington, Easington, Hartlepool, North Tyneside, Wansbeck, Wear Valley, and Durham City will each have one new scheme.

These are the fifth wave of Sure Start programmes and are likely to run for seven to ten years. The districts were chosen after consulting by the national index of multiple deprivation.