There has been much praise for this decision locally and nationally. But at a time when many local authorities are having to review and cut back their own children's centres programmes, how have we managed to retain this as a universal service?
The answer is one we are familiar with in the early years sector: through a mixture of effective planning, clear vision, determination, partnership working and luck.
By April 2010 we had established 82 children's centres to support 64,000 under-fives and their families by commissioning 52 lead agencies through an open tender process. Thirty-seven per cent of the lead agencies are from the voluntary sector.
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