Latest on Children's Centres

David Cameron has denied that funding for Sure Start has been cut.  This is far from the truth. What the coalition has done is to amalgamate funding for the children’s centres into a new early intervention grant which also includes funding for other schemes such as youth crime. So it is disingenuous of Cameron to suggest that there will is an automatic increase in spending on Sure Start. Labour MP Frank Field (the government’s "poverty tsar") has warned that Sure Start will be "decimated" by the cuts. As Minister of Children and Families, local MP Sarah Teather has overseen cuts in funding to schools and children’s services so should be well aware of the truth. Instead of checking facts, she has complained that Brent’s Labour Council had plans to close or downgrade half of our Sure Start Children's Centres in a “political” decision, choosing to spend the funds elsewhere. The truth is that no existing Children’s Centre will close. Some will be linked to a primary school and the three centres planned as brand new builds will not now go ahead.  Brent will therefore retain 17 Sure Start Children’s Centres.