§ Mr. GoodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many and what percentage of children's centres will be funded exclusively by his Department in(a) 2003, (b) 2004 and (c) 2005. [121894]
§ Margaret Hodge[holding answer 26 June 2003]: The Government are allocating resources to develop children centres, arid to create 43,000 new child care places—£435 million in this spending review period, including £317 million capital. Local authorities are responsible for deciding how and where children's centre services will be delivered. The majority of centres will be developed from sure start local programmes, neighbourhood nurseries and early excellence centres. However, the sure start unit is also encouraging development from other existing provision in the maintained, voluntary and private sectors. Local authority strategic plans are due by mid October 2003; we cannot estimate what proportion of centres will be fully funded by DfES until these are received.