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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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