Derbyshire local authority has 46 Sure Start Children’s Centres of which 11 are recorded as former Sure Start Local Programmes. Of these 46 children’s centres, five are in the North East Derbyshire constituency, of which one is recorded as a former Sure Start Local Programme.
We are on track to achieve our target of at least 3,500 Sure Start Children’s Centres by March 2010, offering access to services for all children under five and their families. As of 31 August 2009 there were 3,059 centres operational in England, providing access to services for over 2.4 million children and their families.
Funding for Sure Start Children’s Centres in Derbyshire and North East Derbyshire is provided to Derbyshire local authority as part of the Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant (SSEYCG). The local authority is responsible for managing Sure Start Children’s Centres performance across its area and will decide how much to allocate to centres in each area.
The following table shows the spend on Children’s Centres and Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) by Derbyshire local authority since the start of the programme. The Department will not receive audited figures for 2008-09 until the end of October 2009.
Children’s centres revenue Children’s centres capital SSLP revenue 2003-04 0 0 3,028,718 2004-05 100,580 4,901 3,483,649 2005-06 1n/a 2,670,630 3,564,598 2006-07 1n/a 1,064,208 1n/a 2007-08 1n/a 2,662,713 1n/a 1 In 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 Derbyshire local authority chose to pool its revenue funding in a Local Area Agreement (LAA) which was paid by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG, formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, ODPM) as part of the LAA grant revenue. This funding was not ring fenced to SureStart activities; Derbyshire local authority had the freedom to spend the funding pooled in its Local Area Agreement in line with local priorities. The authority was not required to report details of its spend of Sure Start revenue to the Department.
Derbyshire local authority will hold full records of its Children’s Centres and SSLP spend.
SSLPs were given multi year capital allocations from programme inception to the end of 2005-06. Therefore it is not possible to disaggregate allocations by financial year. Derbyshire received a capital allocation of £4,872,260 and spent £4,686,552 for the life of the programme.
From 2004-05 revenue funding for Children’s centres was included within the wider SSEYCG Main Revenue block. Children’s Centres capital funding was ring fenced in 2004-6 but from 2006-07 was included in the wider SSEYCG Main Capital block. Funding in these blocks is not ring fenced and the authority had the freedom to decide how much to spend on each area supported by the grant, in line with local priorities. these allocations are shown in the following table.
2003-04 2004-061 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Children’s centres capital 0 3,193,965 n/a n/a n/a n/a Main capital (from 2006-07) n/a n/a 3,893,683 2,953,740 8,022,534 4,728,377 Main revenue (from 2004-05) n/a 9,066,052 7,441,069 8,674,060 12,359,727 14,015,139 SSLP revenue 3,047,059 7,073,123 3,565,646 2,953,740 2,818,688 2,389,285 1 In 2004-06 local authorities received a two year allocation for the Sure Start Grant. Therefore it has not been possible to disaggregate the allocations for 2004-05 and 2005-06.