HC Deb 07 September 2004 vol 424 cc985-6W
Mr. Woodward

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many Early Excellence centres(a) have been opened and (b) are planned to be opened in (i) St. Helens and (ii) England, broken down by region. [186809]

Margaret Hodge

There is one Early Excellence Centre (EEC) in St. Helens based at Legh Vale school in Haydock ward.

No further EECs will be developed. The Government are establishing children's centres across England many of which will be developed from existing EECs.

There are 107 EECs in England six of which are special projects. The special projects are run by RNIB which works with four EECs (two in London and two in the South East) and NHS Newborn which works with two London based EEC's.

A list of EECs in England, broken down by local authority region follows:

Annex A
Local authority Number of Early

Excellence Centres
Bath and NE Somerset 1
Bedfordshire 2
Birmingham 2
Blackpool 1
Bolton 1
Bradford 1
Bristol 2
Bury 1
Cambridgeshire 2
Camden 1
Cornwall 2
Coventry 1
Croydon 1
Cumbria network 1
Derby 1
Derbyshire 1
Devon 2
Dorset 1
Durham 1
Ealing 1
Gateshead 1
Gloucestershire 1
Greenwich 1
Hackney 1
Hammersmith and Fulham 2
Hampshire 2
Haringey 1
Harrow 1
Herefordshire 1
Hertfordshire 1
Hillingdon 1
Isle of Wight 2
Islington 2
Kent 1

Annex A
Local authority Number of Early

Excellence Centres
Kingston upon Thames 1
Kirklees 1
Lambeth 1
Lancashire 4
Leeds 1
Lewisham 1
Liverpool 1
Luton 2
Manchester 1
Middlesbrough 1
Newcastle 1
Newham 1
Norfolk 1
North East Lincolnshire 1
North Tyneside 1
Northamptonshire 1
Northumberland 1
Nottinghamshire 1
Oxfordshire 2
Peterborough 1
Plymouth 1
Portsmouth 1
Reading 1
Richmond-upon-Thames 1
Rotherham 2
Somerset 2
Southampton 1
South Tyneside 1
St Helens 1
Stockport 1
Sunderland 1
Surrey 1
Sutton 1
Swindon 1
Tameside 1
Tower Hamlets 1
Wakefield 1
Waltham Forest 1
Warwickshire 2
Westminster 1
West Sussex 1
Wigan 2
Wiltshire 2
Wirral 2
Wokingham 1
Wolverhampton 1
Note:
Six special projects are operated by NHS Newborn and RNIB. The RNIB project works with four EECs (two in North West and two in South East). The NHSP Newborn initiative works with two EECs in London.