§ Ms KellyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what has been the annual cost to date of establishing the Sure Start Scheme; and what estimate he has made of the number of Sure Start places in each year since its establishment and in 2000–01. [122531]
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§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 17 May 2000]: The 60 trailblazers cover approximately 50,000 children aged under four in disadvantaged areas. 57 of these programmes have now been approved and most are delivering services. The total spend in the financial year 1999–2000 was £4,877,000.
By March 2002, we intend to establish 250 programmes covering up to 200,000 children, around 8 per cent. of children aged under four at one time, and around 20 per cent. of the age group living in poverty in England. We expect most of these programmes to either start operations or start planning by March 2001.