Norman Glass, the senior civil servant who pioneered the Government’s Sure Start programme, has died of cancer at the age of 63.

From his base in the Treasury he came up with Sure Start, a British version of the American Headstart project, to focus money, nursery staff and health visitors on pre-school children in poor areas to help to get them before they started their formal education. The plan was backed by Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Naomi Eisenstadt, the former director of the Sure Start Unit and currently Director of the Social Exclusion Task Force at the. UK Cabinet Office, paid tribute to him. Writing in The Guardian, she said, “Norman's intelligence, along with his warmth, humour and creativity, led to the most radical programme of service development for young children ever seen in Britain.

“Rarely has a civil servant had such an opportunity. And rarely has one taken it with such enthusiasm and energy; young children for many generations to come will benefit from Norman's achievements.”