Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2018 to Question 124199, on Children's Centres: Inspections, what the timetable is for new inspection criteria to be produced.

As previously stated in my answer to question 124199, children’s centre inspections are suspended. The letter from my hon. Friend, in his position as the former Parliamentary Under Secretary for Childcare and Education (Sam Gyimah) on 25 September 2015 to Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, stated that the Secretary of State for Education retains the ability to require Ofsted to undertake inspections and Ofsted itself retains the ability to inspect children’s centres if concerns are raised. The letter can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sure-start-childrens-centre-inspections-sam-gyimah-letter.

We are determined to improve early years provision across the board. In December 2017, we published our Social Mobility Action Plan, Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential. This plan sets out the government’s ambition to close the word gap in the early years. This is a clear direction for all those who have a part to play. Our focus now is on delivering this ambition. Through our new early years system leadership programme we will work with sector leaders to identify how best to do so, including through children’s centres. We will provide further details in due course.