§ Mr. Tony ClarkeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much Sure Start money has been allocated to the Northampton, South constituency. [11289]
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§ Jacqui SmithNorthampton was invited to take part in the third wave of Sure Start, and local stakeholders were invited to choose the programme's catchment area. They decided to situate the programme in Spencer, Kings Heath and St. James, which are outside of the Northampton, South constituency. Northamptonshire has also been invited to develop a smaller scale Sure Start programme as part of the £22 million wave of programmes announced in July 2001, aimed at rural areas and small pockets of deprivation. Local stakeholders also decided to locate this programme outside of the Northampton, South constituency.
The Government are committed to establishing 500 Sure Start programmes by March 2004. So far, 437 have been announced over five waves and a sixth wave will be announced next year. The next 63 programme areas are not yet decided, but the districts will be identified using similar criteria to those used previously, which is on the basis of level of need and deprivation.