Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of reductions in local authority funding to children's centres in Greater Manchester on educational attainment of children since 2010.

Due to the wide range of services that affect educational outcomes for young children, it is not possible to draw a causal link between children’s centre services and a child’s educational attainment.

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) results show that the proportion of young children achieving a good level of development at age 5 has increased across all local authorities in Greater Manchester since 2010. EYFSP results from 2009-10 to 2015-16 are published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-early-years-foundation-stage-profile.

Local authorities have the freedom to determine how to fund other services delivered via their networks of children’s centres, including via the Business Rate Retention Scheme. Local authorities have the freedom to decide what children’s centre services are appropriate to meet local needs and statutory duties.