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Parental involvement and participation, partnership with parents, and community-focused development are important features of government initiatives such as the Sure Start project for children under four years of age and their families. A common feature of the rhetoric is "empowerment" as a means of achieving this. This article describes the activity and development of the Parents Committee in one Sure Start programme and uses this to tease out different dimensions of empowerment. In particular, it highlights issues regarding developing empowerment and the dynamic tension between the growth of personal power and the changing symmetry of power relationships. A tentative model of the trajectory of developing empowerment is presented. This may raise challenges for professionals seeking to fulfill their professional role in a complex context and questions as to whether, or how, it might be possible to better prepare professionals for this dimension of their work. (Contains 1 figure.)