Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start children's centres closed in England in 2017.

Since January 2016, real-time data on children’s centres and sites has been supplied by local authorities via the Department’s EduBase portal at:

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

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.

Based on information supplied by local authorities, 60 children’s centres closed between 1 January 2017 and 19 April 2017.[1]

[1] The number of children’s centres closed is based on information supplied to Edubase, as at 19 April 2017 at 10:50am. This figure could change if local authorities report additional closures that took place between 1 January and 19 April.