Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 24 April 2017 to Question 71222, on children's centres: closures, how her Department defines the most disadvantaged people; and what steps she is taking to ensure that the most disadvantaged people are not affected by the closure of Sure Start centres.

We do not routinely collect data on the number of people using Sure Start Children’s Centre services.

Statutory guidance makes clear that where councils decide to close a children’s centre, they should demonstrate that children and families, particularly the most disadvantaged, will not be; and that they are still meeting the duty to have sufficient children’s centres to meet local need. It is for local councils to define what is meant by disadvantage in this respect, having regard to the things that they are obliged to consider in statutory guidance; this is because any such definition must reflect local circumstances.