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Children's Centres: Publicity

Answer

The information requested is as follows:301509On 16 March, the Prime Minister announced that Government had met its target for 3500 Sure Start Children's Centres. It is important that all families with young children are aware of the range of services available, and where their local children's centre is. The Department undertook analysis in early 2009 of current research which highlighted a lack of awareness about the range of services available or that it is a universal service. The Department has therefore run the first ever national communications campaign to boost awareness of children's centres which commenced September 2009 and early evaluation is positive—with an increase of over 40 per cent. in the number of parents (in areas targeted by the campaign) who know about their local children's centre.The amount spent on communications and publicity for children's centres in each year is set out in the following table. It is not possible to provide figures back to 2004, because children's centre communications activity was incorporated into wider communications budgets covering early years and childcare. The amount spent in 2009-10 is higher than previous years as 2009-10 is when the Department ran its first national communications campaign for Sure Start Children's Centres, and represents 0.29 per cent. of the total 2009-10 programme budget for Sure Start Children's Centres.

Table 1: Specific Sure Start Children's Centres related communications to the public
Financial Year	Amount (£)
2007-08	35,800
2008-09	188,100
2009-10¹	3,418,600
¹ As at 23 March 2010

301510Since 2004, there have been two updates to the branding guidelines for Sure Start Children's Centres, both of which set out expectations for how external signage should look. The first update was in March 2006, which established Sure Start as the overall brand for all services for 0 to 5-year-olds and created a new SureStart logo. A further update to branding guidelines was made in March 2009, to reflect the establishment of the national network of Sure Start Children's Centres.301511As part of the national communications campaign an estimated 2,400,000 leaflets advertising Sure Start Children's Centres were sent to specific postcodes via door drops (see Tables 2 and 3). The postcodes in Table 2 were selected according to population density and deprivation and those in Table 3 according to rurality and deprivation. We do not hold details of which local authority wards these postcodes represent and have supplied details of the upper tier local authority in Tables 2 and 3. A copy of tables 2 and 3 will be placed in the Libraries. Local authorities and individual centres may have conducted their own door drop leaflet distribution, but this information is not collected by the Department. Door drop leaflet distribution is an effective way of targeting potential users of children's centres among families who may be less likely to access children centres.301512National radio advertising for Sure Start Children's Centres started for the first time in 2009-10. The total amount spent on radio advertising in 2009-10 was £951800. Radio advertising is effective at building awareness on a national level and reaching out to parents who may be unaware of children's centres and the services they offer.301513Press advertising for Sure Start Children's Centres started in 2008-09 and 2009-10. The total amount spent on press advertising in 2008-2009 was £150,000; and in 2009-10 it was £831 600. Press advertising is particularly useful in conveying the range of services available at children's centres.301514The Department commissioned specialist creative development of advertising for Sure Start Children's Centres in 2009-10 only. The total amount spent was £87,300 in 2009-10. The creative development is a crucial part of the planning process. This research helps us to understand whether the advertisements are clear and engaging for the audience before they are rolled out nationally. This ensures that we can receive the optimum return on investment.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

508 c1561-2W; 301509

Session

2009-10

Subjects

Publicity Children's centres

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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