MPs criticise government response to children's centres report

The committee has said the government failed to take its evaluation of children’s centres seriously and will recall childcare minister Elizabeth Truss to give further evidence to it.

The parliamentary report, published in December last year, identified three types of centre with different roles and functions delivered by each, prompting the committee to call on the government to provide greater clarity about the role and purpose of centres.

But Truss failed to answer the call when delivering the government’s official response, denying that the core purpose of centres is too vague.

In the report, she states that centres are there to “support both children and their parents, especially those in greatest need” but gives no further explanation other than to say those needs will “inevitably vary from area to area”.

Truss also rejected the committee’s recommendation for the government to introduce a national outcomes framework to monitor and assess the performance of individual centres.

She said: “The government understands the rationale for a national outcomes framework for individual centres.

“However, as other evidence to the committee suggested, it might be difficult to reconcile such a framework to the mixed and flexible offer made by children’s centres.

“If children’s centre managers would find a national outcomes framework a useful local tool, then local authorities and third sector organisations should be encouraged to develop such a tool.

“However, the government would not want to prescribe its use.”

Graham Stuart, chair of the committee, said the government must provide an explanation for its lacklustre response.

He said: “The committee is disappointed by the inadequate response provided by the government to our report on children’s centres.

“This is a hugely important area, as it is widely accepted that the early years are the time during which good interventions can make the most effective difference to children’s lives.

“We called on the government to take early years seriously and we feel that the response has failed to engage with that challenge.

“The committee has therefore decided that it will ask the minister to give evidence on the response, to fill in the gaps where recommendations and analysis have not been addressed directly and to explain the thinking behind the responses that have been made.”