§ Tom CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what funding has been given by his Department during the last 12 months to pre-school provision within the Greater London area. [179049]
§ Margaret HodgeThe Department funds a range of provision in London, such as children's centres, Neighbourhood Nurseries and Sure Start Local Programmes, concentrated in the more disadvantaged areas. In all local authorities the Department meets the1212W cost of part-time early education places and a Sure Start General Grant is paid, most of which supports preschool provision.
From April 2003, funding to support the delivery of early years education was consolidated within the under fives sub-block of each local authority's Education Formula Spending Share (EFSS)—the main source of education funding. The under fives sub-block for Greater London total amount is £499.45 million for 2004–05.
The amount of Sure Start General Grant paid to London authorities was £48.3 million in 2003–04.
The main children's centre programme will begin this financial year. However, for the period 2003–04, £2.05 million was provided to London local authorities in advance of this to encourage early development of the programme. There are 96 Sure Start local programmes in London who received £61.98 million revenue and claimed £21.1 million in capital grants in 2003–04. Grants of £4.3 million were made to Early Excellence Centres in London 2003–04. There are 153 neighbourhood nurseries currently open in London delivering nearly 5,000 day care places. We are making available a total of £24 million in revenue funding to enable these nurseries to establish themselves. Funding is via the local authority and each individual nursery is eligible for grant for the first three years of operation.