Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) Sure Start centres and (b) other children’s centres have closed in each of the last six months.

Since 18 September 2017, data on Sure Start children’s centres and children’s centre linked sites has been supplied by local authorities via the department’s Get Information about Schools (GIAS) database portal at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/ [1].

Based on the information supplied by local authorities [2], no Sure Start children’s centres have closed in the last six months.

[1] The GIAS collects data on children’s centres that local authorities have closed on a permanent basis. It does not collect data on children’s centres that local authorities may have closed temporarily in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

[2] The number of children’s centres is based on information supplied by local authorities as at 1 July 2020. This figure could change in future since local authorities may update their data at any time.