Sure Start Strategy (Hansard, 12 January 1999)

§ The Prime Minister

Sure Start is a vital element in the Government's work to improve services and other support for young children and their families. We have committed £540 million over the next three years, including £452 million in England, to achieving Sure Start's objectives. Sure Start is an interdepartmental strategy, and144W its success will require active partnership within Government and a continuing commitment to innovation. I want the arrangements for securing Parliamentary accountability for Sure Start both to be clear and to underline these principles.

I have therefore decided that, in England: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment will take the lead on Sure Start within the Cabinet, while my right hon. Friend the Minister for Public Health will have day-to-day responsibility for the policy and will chair the interdepartmental steering group of Ministers and officials which will take it forward and monitors progress; a new interdepartmental Sure Start Unit, based in the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), will run the programme at official level, with its terms of reference and targets set by the steering group. Ms Naomi Eisenstadt, currently Chief Executive of Family Service Units, will take up her appointment as the head of the Sure Start shortly; subject to approval of the necessary Estimate, Sure Start expenditure for England will be carried on its own Vote. The Head of the Sure Start Unit will be an additional Accounting Officer within the DfEE. As is usual, the appointment as additional Accounting Officer will be made by the Treasury and a copy of the letter of appointment, setting out the respective roles and responsibilities of the additional Accounting Officer and the Permanent Secretary of the DfEE as Principal Accounting Officer, will be sent to the Comptroller and Auditor General and to the Clerk of the Committee of Public Accounts; My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment will be the Minister ultimately answerable to Parliament for Sure Start. But my right hon. Friend the Minister for Public Health will normally answer Parliamentary Questions on Sure Start in this House, and in the case of Oral Questions will do so during DfEE Question Time. The Government expect that the relevant Select Committees will normally wish to invite her to appear when they examine Sure Start. My noble friend the Baroness Hollis of Heigham, a member of the Sure Start steering group, will answer for the Government in another place.

My right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Public Health is writing today to the Chairman of the Committee for Public Accounts and the Chairmen of the Select Committees for Health and for Education and Employment, and the Government will liaise as necessary with the House authorities, to ensure that these arrangements work well and secure effective accountability for this innovative policy.

My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales are accountable to Parliament for Sure Start and equivalent programmes in Scotland and Wales respectively.