Warning over Sure Start centres

The Labour party has warned that more than 1,000 Sure Start children’s centres could close if the Conservatives return to power after the general election.

According to Labour, the Tories would see hundreds of the centres, which provide support to pre-school children, closed or “mothballed”.

Labour’s shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said: “Before the last election, David Cameron said he would protect Sure Start but since then there are hundreds fewer centres. If they get in again they’ll do the same again.”

In contrast, Labour has said it would revive Sure Start, as well as provide more childcare places and extend free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that the “astronomical cost” of UK childcare “means that for many families work simply does not pay”. She added: “The next government should move to end this childcare nightmare instead of increasing the burden on hard-pressed families across the country.”

In response to the launch of the Labour Party’s education manifesto, Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said that all the evidence shows that investment in the early years of a child’s life make a huge difference to educational attainment. 

“I therefore welcome the commitment to restoring the Sure Start programme which fell victim to this coalition’s unnecessary and savage cuts,” she said.

http://leftfootforward.org/2015/04/labour-warns-that-another-tory-government-would-threaten-1000-sure-start-centres

www.nasuwt.org.uk/Whatsnew/NASUWTNews/PressReleases/NASUWT_014001