Labour Friends of Sure Start (LLFoS) have urged every Labour council to make protecting children’s centres in disadvantaged areas a spending priority, and avoid any further closures.
Their new pamphlet, ‘Sure Start, What Future?’, which features reflections on how to keep children’s centres alive for the next five years, was contributed to by shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt, shadow children and families minister Sharon Hodgson, chair of the Early Intervention Foundation Graham Allen and deputy leader of Brent Council Michael Pavey.
Both Mr Hunt and deputy leader of Brent Council Michael Pavey acknowledge that keeping centres open will not be easy.
Mr Pavey, also director of LLfOS, said, ‘After years of brutal budgets settlements, there are no painless cuts left in local Government. But we need to build a consensus across the Labour movement that Sure Start is unique and that it literally faces extinction.
‘We cannot afford to lose Sure Start. It took Labour almost a decade to build a nationwide network of children’s centres. If we lose this priceless infrastructure now, it will be gone for generations. The human cost of this would be simply incalculable. We can prevent this by working together.’
‘We need Labour councils to innovate and share their experiences. Whether it is delivering Sure Start in partnership with the voluntary sector, integrating public health functions into children’s centres or stripping out additional management tiers, there is always an alternative to closure.’
Contributors to the pamphlet also suggest that the reach of children’s centres be widened. The charity 4Children refers to its model of ‘children and family hubs’.
Ben Thomas, national officer for education and children’s services at Unison, who has also written a submission for the pamphlet, calls for a renewed commitment to Sure Start, reminding people of the original vision of children’s centres and why it still makes sense.
Children's centres consultation
The publication of the pamphlet follows an announcement by the childcare minister Sam Gyimah that the Government is to launch a consultation on the future of children's centres in the autumn.
Commenting on the announcement, Sharon Hodgson, shadow children and families minister, said, 'The fact is the devastating cuts to children's centres have made them mere shells of their former selves, so it is no wonder they aren't able to deliver in the way they were intended.'
According to the latest figures obtained by Labour from the House of Commons Library, the number of designated Sure Start children's centres has fallen from 3,632 in April 2010 to 2,816 in November 2014. This is a fall of 816 in four years.
Ms Hodgson added, 'Children's centres should never have had their budgets cut so savagely or had their ring-fenced funding removed. The underperformance of some children's centres is all down to this Government and if not enough centres are hitting good or outstanding levels the minister should look no further than his party's ideology and their thoughtless cuts.
'Policies and cuts have consequences and this is one of them. The hypocrisy of this new announcement stinks and it will stick in the throat of parents and children centre staff across the country who have been fighting for five years to protect these vital centres from the savage cuts of this Government. To slash and burn and then complain about the ashes is despicable.
'He doesn't need to do a full review I can tell him what the problem is: it's him and his Government, simple!'
‘Sure Start, What Future?’ was launched at a debate on the future of Sure Start at Portcullis House in Westminster yesterday.
