Children's Centres: Closures

(asked on 10th May 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many and which Children's Centres closed in 2015–16, 2016–17 and 2017 to date.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Agnew of Oulton
This question was answered on 24th May 2018

Since 18 September 2017, data on children’s centres has been supplied by local authorities via the department’s Get Information about Schools database portal at: https://www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/.

The figures in the table below are based on information supplied by local authorities as at 11 May 2018[1].

Financial Year

Number of children’s centres closed

2015-16

182

2016-17

135

2017-18

12

1 April to 11 May 2018

1

A list of the children’s centres that have closed in each financial year since April 2015 is attached.

Councils are reconfiguring services to deliver them more efficiently. If a council decides to close a children’s centre, statutory guidance is clear that they should demonstrate that local children and families would not be adversely affected and that local areas continue to have sufficient children’s centres to meet their needs.

Over the same period, the number of two, three and four years olds in good and outstanding early years provision has increased, as set out in the attached table.

[1] Based on information supplied by local authorities as at 11 May 2018, 11:30 am. These figures may be different to previous answers, and could change again in future, since local authorities may update the database at any time.

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