The next part of the Sure Start story is set against a complex set of interconnecting changes at the heart of government. All of these changes affected Sure Start in some way, and all had a much wider impact on children's and broader social policy. A series of significant events and publications were critical to the transformation of Sure Start over the subsequent five years, as well as to the delivery of children's services across England:

• • A Labour victory in the general election of 2001 was followed by a reorganisation of the DfEE and a change of Secretary of State. A new government department, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), was set up with the transfer of employment responsibilities from the DfEE, now called the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), with Estelle Morris as Secretary of State.

• • Tackling Child Poverty (HMT, 2001, pp vi–vii) was published as part of the Pre-Budget Report in the autumn of 2001. This Treasury document argued that both fiscal and social policies together would be needed to achieve the aim of ending child poverty.

• • A major interdepartmental review of childcare was carried out. It recommended the merger of childcare, early years and Sure Start, and also recommended a bigger role for local authorities in the design and delivery of all early years and care policy, including childcare for school-aged children. The 2002 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) followed this advice, changing the joint departmental responsibilities for Sure Start from the DfES and Department of Health (DH), to the DfES and DWP, merging the Sure Start Unit with the Early Years and Childcare Units.

• • Major changes in the machinery of government took place in the summer of 2003 with the setting up of a new department for children and families, which brought together for the first time education, children's social care and family policy, with aspects of family law. However, the restructured department would still be called the DfES for some years to come.

• • A new minister of state post was created, the Minister for Children, which would be the first minister of state-level post in government with no responsibilities other than children's policy, with Margaret Hodge as the first post-holder.