Any party that does not put Sure Start children’s centres at the heart of its election manifesto for families will make a mistake. When Sure Start began in 1999, it set out with a vision of creating a new service architecture in every disadvantaged area, something that remains a priority today.

Fifteen years on, 4Children’s research shows that despite intense pressure on centres’ budgets, over a million families benefit from their support. To be clear, the financial pressure on centres has been, and remains, real. With a ring-fenced budget removed, centres have faced funding reductions of over 20 per cent during the last three years, with more expected. In response, some local authorities have merged centres, others have limited the services available and a smaller but significant number have closed centres down.

The fact that the vast majority of centres remain open is testament to the huge support they have from parents and professionals, and the significance of their approach to joined-up working for wider service delivery. Let us not forget that children’s centres are pioneers of a new approach to delivering support to local children and families, bringing together health, education, family support and specialist support.  Although still in their relative infancy, centres are building blocks for the wider integration of services, something evidence consistently shows is needed. From family intervention to safeguarding, children’s centres achieve most at the heart of an early intervention strategy, with targeted support linked in when crisis hits. This progress has been made in the toughest circumstances. The question now is what centres could achieve if the network was further invested in and built upon.

A question to shadow secretary of state for education Tristram Hunt this week, asking whether he could promise to re-open those children’s centers that have closed, solicited a firm ‘no’, but with the important clarification that Labour is committed to Sure Start being the ‘hub’ of services. Every centre will need to reflect local need, so the future of specific centres that have closed is too complex to give a definite commitment for each. It would, however, be a generational misjudgment for anyone to consider dismantling the network just as it starts to demonstrate its potential impact.

We should seek to maxmise that potential by putting children’s centres on a statutory footing by growing them at the heart of a hub of community services, from conception to school and beyond, by requiring professionals to work together and by pooling funding. Maintaining and increasing investment in Sure Start is essential, as is a ring-fenced budget to protect these new ways of working as they are secured. Sure Start is an investment to save – but, by definition, to achieve those savings investment is required.

Thanks to Labour’s vision 15 years ago, Sure Start is ‘coming of age’, with enormous potential. A commitment to deliver this potential in the next parliament would be welcomed by every parent – and grandparent – in the land.

Anne Longfield is chief executive of 4Children