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Iestyn Williams, Suzanne Robinson and Helen Dickinson (2012), Rationing in Health Care: The Theory and Practice of Priority Setting. Bristol: Policy Press. £21.99, pp. 159, pbk.

In the ‘growing up’ phase described in chapter 7, it becomes clear that the government’s agenda was heavily oriented towards services that would facilitate parental employment. Thus, rather than providing a range of family support services, most centres became more focussed on provision of child care so that the likelihood of child poverty would be reduced. The end result of 500 plus Sure Start Local Programmes, becoming 3,500 Sure Start children’s centres, had undoubtedly represented a massive sea-change in the investment in early years services and one that Naomi Eisenstadt can justly describe with some pride. There had, by the time the book was completed, been a change of government. The current approach is still heavily focussed on early intervention (Allen, 2011a, 2011b) but now a different strategy is being applied. Local decisions have been made to close some centres and centrally funds are being sought from external investors to provide programmes that can show evidence of impact. It will be interesting to see how the next decade develops for early years services. Hopefully, another insider will be able to give an account as detailed, informative and accurate as the one presented in this volume about Labour’s flag-ship Sure Start programme.