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Children's Centres

Answer

We are on track to achieve our target of at least 3,500 Sure Start children’s centres by March 2010, offering access to services for all children under five and their families. As of 31 July 2009, there were 3,052 centres operational in England, providing access to services for over 2.4 million children and their families.The following table gives details of how many centres have opened in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) the North East and (iv) England in each year since the inception of Sure Start children’s centres. To date, no centres have been closed.

Table 1: Children’s centres opened
	Jarrow	South Tyneside	North East	England
2003	0	0	6	59
2004	1	2	25	130
2005	2	1	20	254
2006	1	2	63	604
2007	1	1	33	838
2008	0	1	35	1,029
2009	0	0	5	138
Total	5	7	187	3,052

The Department allocates capital and revenue funding for children’s centres and their predecessor Sure Start local programmes to local authorities. It is for local authorities to decide how to allocate funding between individual centres. The following table contains details of the capital allocations for South Tyneside, the North East and England in each of the years since the inception of the Sure Start programme.

Table 2: Capital funding
£
	South Tyneside	North East	England
1999-2006¹	5,000,000	61,642,396	479,638,144
2003-04²	0	1,500	1,947,523
2004-06	2,269,434	28,138,878	320,870,605
2006-07³	634,779	13,226,762	272,254,576
2007-08³	1,227,885	24,026,753	545,033,570
2008-09	26,631	4,701,609	81,000,006
2009-10	45,999	3,867,777	169,000,002
2010-11	48,403	2,534,107	100,999,997
¹ The first Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) were set up in 1999-2000. SSLPs received a single capital allocation for the period 1999-2000 to 2005-06.
² Sure Start children’s centres were introduced from 2003-04. All former SSLPs have now become children’s centres. Capital funding for the Sure Start children’s centres capital programme was made available from 2003-04.
³ The 2006-07 and 2007-08 allocations are for the wider main capital block and includes funding for child care sustainability and extended schools, during these years local authorities had the flexibility to decide how much of their total capital allocation to spend on children’s centres and were not required to provide a breakdown of the funding provided for children’s centres.

From 2006-07 children’s centres capital formed part of the wider main capital funding block. From 2008-09 the block comprised of funding for children’s centres, early years provision, child care and integrated projects. Funding in the main capital block is not ring-fenced and local authorities have the freedom to decide how much of their total capital allocation to spend on children’s centres in line with local priorities.The Department does not collect information on the number of outreach workers employed by children’s centres. Staffing levels are a matter for local management by local authorities and their partner agencies.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

497 c202-3W; 291805

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Children's centres

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk