HC Deb 27 July 1999 vol 336 cc158-9W
Mr. Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much money from the Sure Start Programme has been granted to projects in the parliamentary constituencies of (a) Birkenhead, (b) Wallasey, (c) Wirral, West and (d) Wirral, South. [91248]

Ms Jowell

No money from the Sure Start programme has been granted to projects in the parliamentary constituencies of Birkenhead, Wallasey, Wirral, West and Wirral, South. These parliamentary constituencies were not included within the 60 areas of the country invited to develop a local Sure Start programme in the first round. The 60 areas were chosen as trailblazers because they were areas which scored highly on an index of local deprivation and were areas where there was existing local capacity, so that they could set up quickly and therefore play a mentoring role to future programmes.

We aim to set up 250 programmes in England by 2001–02 and are planning to invite a second round of applications in the autumn.