Written question asked by Baroness May of Maidenhead (Conservative) on Thursday, 14 October 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 10 November 2004. It was answered by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 November 2004 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Dept for Education and Skills

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what funding has been available from the Joint Investment Fund for (a) contact centres and (b) supervised contact centres in each of the last three years. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding has been available from the Joint Investment Fund for (a) contact centres and (b) supervised contact centres in each of the last three years. [192529] Margaret Hodge: The £3.5 million DfES/Sure Start Joint Investment Fund was announced in March 2004 and represents a major investment in child contact centres for the three financial years 2003-04 to 2005-06. In 2003-04 £100,000 was made available. In 2004-05 £1.8 million is being made available and in 2005-06 £1.6 million will be available. Of the £3.5 million, £2.5 million has been allocated to the establishment of 14 new supervised contact centres in England. A sustainability fund of £430,000 will provide financial support to existing supervised and supported contact centres who are members of the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC). £570,000 of training and consultancy support will be made available to supervised contact centres.

Secondary information