Sure Start Children’s Centres

Children’s centres are a Government initiative to provide better outcomes for children, families and local communities. Children’s centres will act as a local hub for a wide range of integrated services.

Integrated services are not only about the delivery of different services from a variety of statutory, voluntary & community partners. It is also about those partners coming together, with parents, to plan a joint vision and agenda to deliver these services through a management team that represents all parties involved.

Background

The children’s centre concept was initially promoted in the Interdepartmental Childcare Review report Delivering for children and families published in November 2002 and has been taken forward through the Green Paper Every Child Matters. It was enshrined in the Children Act 2004, was supported further through the Childcare Act 2006 and is recognised within the Childrens Plan (2007) as the key delivery mechanism for improving outcomes for children under five and their families

Children’s centres are not about creating physical buildings, but building on the services that are already in place. In some areas, however, we may need to set up entirely new facilities to enable services to come together.

The Government is committed to delivering a Sure Start Children’s Centre for every community by 2010. Sure Start Children’s Centres are a vital part of the Government’s 10 year childcare strategy to enable all families with children to have access to an affordable, flexible, high quality childcare place for their child. Choice for parents, the best start for children: a ten year strategy for childcare (2004), can be accessed at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk

For further information on the background to children’s centres, the services they provide or where your nearest centre is located please select from the appropriate link on the left.