I am project co-ordinator on a project called Time for Childcare, which is part of a community Time Bank. We are currently exploring the idea of setting up a children's centre in the North Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. Our area is some 226 square miles, which encompasses a lot of families and individuals who would benefit from having access to such a centre. However, like Jane, we are not in a designated 'area of deprivation', although there are specific sites that have been earmarked as such.
I wholly applaud the idea of children's centres in current Sure Start areas. But I also ask, as Jane does, that some money and priority is given over to areas without such obvious 'deprivation' issues. Surely another look at the financial distribution when it comes to the creation of children's centres will ensure that the Sure Start aim of getting children to a standard where they can 'compete on a level playing field' before starting school, as was originally intended, is fulfilled across the board.
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