Oral Answers to Questions

Sharon Hodgson Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Teather]

The Department has commissioned an ongoing evaluation of children’s centres in England, so any changes that are made as a result of Government policy, particularly the move to payment by results and changes in other services offered by children’s centres, will certainly be picked up by the evaluation.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

Last week the Department finally admitted that the Government’s damaging cuts to early years are resulting in services being withdrawn and children’s centres being decommissioned and having to close their doors to parents, but we all know that those figures are just the beginning. Councils are now looking ahead to the next financial year, with the reserves drained and the easy cuts having already been made. How many centres will have to close before this out-of-touch Government and out-of-touch Secretary of State admit their mistakes and save our Sure Starts?

[Sarah Teather]

Our survey suggests that there have been six closures and 124 mergers since last year, out of a total that started at 3,631, so there has been a 3% change in the number of Sure Start children’s centres, demonstrating that most local authorities are not only doing the best in what are, I recognise, very difficult circumstances, just as they are for the Government. Those authorities are prioritising services on the ground and that is certainly what we are encouraging them to do, as we ask them to publish the information on what they spend, under the new transparency requirements that the Government have introduced. Similarly, payments by results will focus them much more on outcomes.