Asked by: Karen Buck (Labour - Westminster North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children aged five and under accessed programmes through children’s centres and family hubs in each English local authority area in the last 12 months.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The department does not routinely collect data on the number of children who are accessing programmes through children’s centres or family hubs. This data is held at a local level.
Local authorities have statutory duties under Part 1 of the Childcare Act 2006 to facilitate access to early childhood services and encourage parents to take advantage of them. The act, and the duties, are available to view here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/21/part/1.
Local authorities should be reviewing data on service use and outcomes to ensure that they are meeting these duties and that their commissioning decisions are informed by evidence of the impact of their local services.