Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2019 to Question 260548 on Sure Start Programme, what recent assessment he has made of the implementation of local authorities' duty under the Childcare Act (2006) to ensure sufficient children's centres to meet the need of local families.

The government has not made any such assessment. It is the responsibility of local authorities to comply with their statutory duties, having regard to statutory guidance published by the Department for Education. The relevant statutory guidance can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/678913/childrens_centre_stat_guidance_april-2013.pdf.

The government’s focus is on outcomes for children. In July 2018 the government set an ambitious goal to halve, by 2028, the percentage of children leaving reception year without the communication, language and literacy skills they need to thrive. This is a clear direction for all those who have a part to play, including children’s centres. The department is working with local authorities, including through our £8.5 million early years local government programme, to achieve this ambition.

To help local areas monitor and improve these outcomes, the department published on 6 June 2019 the Early Years Outcomes Dashboard, which can be found here: https://department-for-education.shinyapps.io/smapey-dashboard/. This dashboard makes the most important early years social mobility metrics easily available and will allow local authorities to benchmark their outcomes against their statistical neighbours. This is in addition to the extensive range of data made available to local authorities by Public Health England through its Child and Maternal Health profiles, which can be found here: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/child-health-profiles.