To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the objectives are of the Sure Start sufficiency and access grant and the projects it has funded; and how much his Department has allocated to the grant in (a) each year since its introduction and (b) each of the next three years. (223749)

The childcare sufficiency and access element of the Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare Grant was introduced in financial year 2008-09 and so allocation figures are not available for earlier periods. Local authorities have discretion over the use to which they put this funding but the Memorandum of Grant assigns three principal objectives to it:

(a) to help local authorities maintain an accurate and up to date assessment of the provision of, and demand for, childcare in their respective areas;

(b) to help local authorities secure a sufficient supply of childcare across their area, through their management of the local childcare market; and

(c) to ensure that the needs of potentially excluded groups are met

The total funding across the country for sufficiency and access within the 2008-11 SSEYCG main revenue block is as follows: