Government backs
commitment for sure start children's centre in every community
DEPARTMENT FOR
CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES News Release (2007/0190) issued by
The Government News Network on 15 October 2007
The Government
today backed its pledge to have a Sure Start Children's
Centre in every community by 2010, with a further investment of £351m.
The latest funding will pay for developing, extending and
modifying existing centres in less disadvantaged areas and bring
the total number of Children's Centres to 3,500 by 2010.
Speaking at the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI),
Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said: "We know that
children's centres work - they are making considerable
progress in providing better services for young children and their families.
"Our latest foundation stage results show early evidence
that our investment in early years is starting to show results in
the classroom and a parental survey from earlier this year found
that a massive 90% of parents were happy with the services they
received in our children's centres.
"I welcome all the hard work that parents, practitioners and
local authorities have done to make sure that young children have
the best possible start in life and keep this the focus of my work
in government.
Mary MacLeod, Chief Executive of FPI said: "Ensuring that
Children's Centres reach the families who need them most is
an ongoing challenge and I am delighted that the Government is
continuing to drive forward a programme of investment to get
Children's Centres into poorer neighbourhoods.
"Innovative methods of outreach to disadvantaged families
are improving access to children's centres for the most
disadvantaged families whose children stand to gain the most and
at FPI we will continue to work with DCSF to research what works
and ensure that even the most excluded families not only access
services but get their voices heard and help to shape them."
The first phase of the Government's children centre project
concentrated on providing children's centres in some of the
most disadvantaged areas in the country. There are currently 1,500 centres.
Last week the Government issued its response to the Public
Accounts Committee report on Sure Start Children's Centres.
It provided information on all the action taken to improve
services such as: issuing practice guidance on how to engage
disadvantaged families, providing a toolkit on how to engage with
excluded groups providing business planning guidance and staff
training to improve financial management and obtain value for money.
By Autumn 2007 1,200 centre managers will have obtained or be
working towards the National Professional Qualification in
Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL), which is recognised as a
national qualification for those working in multi-agency,
multi-disciplinary environments.
Children's Centre planning guidance will be issued shortly.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Beverley Hughes was speaking at the FPI conference, 'Working
with Vulnerable Families' at Church House in Westminster on
Monday 15 October 2007.
These grant allocations come out of the overall Comprehensive
Spending Review settlement for education, skills and
children's services announced by the Chancellor in March as
part of the Budget 2007.
Allocations have been made based on the numbers of under fives,
weighted to take account of regional differences.
The Sure Start website also has a range of information about
planning and designing buildings: hppt://http://www.surestart.gov.uk/resources/general/capitalbuildingsfacilities/
The Family and Parenting Institute is a leading centre of
expertise on families in the UK. They do research and policy,
provide practical resources for people working with families and
find out what matters most to families.
For media enquiries about the Family and Parenting Institute and
its conference, please call Michael Scanlan on 020 7424 3460
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