Nursery World - Children's centres and extended schools: 'Fund services sustainably'

Childcare organisations have backed Ofsted's recommendation that the Government clarifies children's centre and extended schools funding in the long term.

In a report, How well are they doing? The impact of children's centresand extended schools, Ofsted advised schools and children's centres toincrease their outreach work as services provided for the mostvulnerable families 'were reported to have transformed the lives of someparents and had positive effects on their children'.

It followed inspectors' visits to 30 children's centres and 32 schoolsin 54 local authorities, where more than three-quarters of children'scentres achieved a 'good' or 'outstanding' rating, and all centres wereproviding the core offer.

The report called on the DCSF to 'clarify long-term funding arrangementswith other partners to promote the sustainability of services andstaffing.'

Steve Alexander, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance,backed this recommendation and said that further subsidy would be neededto achieve the core children's centre offer of 8am to 6pm provision. Hesaid this 'can only become a reality if the true cost of providingservices is acknowledged and supported through major long-termGovernment subsidy.'

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