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More outstanding children's centres found in deprived areas

Eight in ten Sure Start children's centres in the most deprived areas of the country are outstanding or good, the latest statistics for Ofsted inspections show.

A higher proportion of phase 1 children’s centres, the first to be established and set up in the most deprived areas of the country, gained outstanding or good grades, compared with the phase 2 centres.

Ofsted inspected 710 Sure Start Children’s Centres between September 2010 and August 2011, the first full year of inspections for children’s centres.

(A small number of centres were inspected during the 2009-2010 inspection cycle.)

Ofsted has a new legal power to inspect children’s centres and is required to inspect all children’s centre provision by 2015.

Of the total number of 745 centres inspected so far, the majority - 463 - are phase 1 children’s centres, while 247 phase 2 centres were inspected during the same inspection period.

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