Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many Sure Start centres have closed or been downgraded in each of the last 10 years in (a) Enfield North, (b) London and (c) England.

Based on the information supplied by local authorities, as of 8 December 2021[1] there were 2,301 children’s centres and 699 children’s centre linked sites[2] open to families and children providing children's centre services as part of a network.

The attached table shows the number of children’s centres sites that have closed in Enfield North, London and England in each year since 2011[3].

The department does not routinely collect data on the services provided by children’s centres. This data is held at a local level.

[1] Source: This is based on information supplied by local authorities to the Get Information about Schools (GIAS) database: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk and internal management information held by the department on historical children’s centre closure dates as of 8 December 2021. These figures may be different to previous answers, and could change again in future, since local authorities may update their data at any time. 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] No data is held on the date a children’s centre converts to a children’s centre linked site, therefore, while a figure for the split between children’s centres and linked sites at the point a query is made can be established, it is not possible to provide a historic breakdown of this figure in previous years.

[3] No closures have been reported in 2021.