Question
(2) pursuant to the answer of 28 March 2007, Official Report, columns 1538-9W, on children's centres, whether he would expect to be informed in all cases of closures of Sure Start children's centres; and of how many such closures he has been informed since 28th March 2007.
Answer
The Department has not received any reports of the closure of Sure Start children’s centres since the programme began in 2003. I would expect local authorities to alert us when if any centre were to be threatened with closure. This would enable Together for Children (the consortium appointed to support the delivery of children’s centres) to broker a solution with local partners for the continuation of children’s centre services in the area concerned.