Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start children's centres there were in England at the end of each calendar year from 2009; and how many there were on the last date for which figures are available.

The Department does not hold directly comparable data for the numbers of children’s centres each year.

As at 24 March 2017 based on information supplied by local authorities, there were 3,210 main children’s centres and sites open to families and children as part of a network.

We know that the total number of main children’s centres and sites at April 2010[1] was 3,615.

Councils are merging centres to allow services to be delivered more efficiently. Where they decide to close a children’s centre, councils must demonstrate that children and families, particularly the most disadvantaged, will not be adversely affected and that they will not compromise their duty to have sufficient children’s centres to meet local need.

Records of children’s centres and sites are maintained by local authorities via the Department’s EduBase portal at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/edubase/search.xhtml?clear=true.

[1] We do not hold records of numbers of children’s centres prior to April 2010. It is not possible to give a year on year breakdown.