HC Deb 11 May 2004 vol 421 cc292-3W
Mr. Meacher

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many(a) Sure Start centres and (b) early excellence centres have been created in Oldham, West and Royton; [170913]

(2) how many new nurseries have been established in Oldham, West and Royton since 1997. [170914]

Margaret Hodge

There are five Sure Start local programmes in Oldham: Sure Start Hollinwood; Sure Start Westwood; Sure Start Werneth; Sure Start Coldhurst and Sure Start Glodwick, St. Mary's and Higginshaw. Of these five programmes, three are based within Oldham, West and Royton: Sure Start Westwood, approved in January 2002; Sure Start Coldhurst approved in December 2002 and Sure Start Werneth which was approved by the Sure Start Unit in March 2003. No Early Excellence Centres have been created in Oldham since 1997.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council has responsibility for determining local need for nursery places in Oldham and holding information on current provision. Under the neighbourhood nurseries scheme 477 new nursery places have been created in Oldham, with 216 of these places being based within Oldham, West and Royton.

Oldham MBC is currently developing plans to implement children's centres in the 20 per cent. most disadvantaged wards; Oldham will be included in these plans.

Mr. Djanogly

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many(a) free nursery and (b) pre-school places were available for (i) three and (ii) four year olds in the Huntingdon constituency in each of the last seven years. [170846]

Margaret Hodge

The information is not available in the form requested.

Figures on the number of free nursery education places taken up by three and four-year-olds in Cambridgeshire local education authority area are shown in the table.

The latest figures on provision for 3 and 4-year-olds in England were published in a Statistical Bulletin 'Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2003' which is available on the Department's website www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/.

From April 2004, six months ahead of our original target, all three-year-olds in England whose parents want one, are eligible for a free, part-time early education place.