Editorial: One year on, and concerns remain the same

It seems that the same is true in local government, as the key concernsof directors of children's services don't seem to change much. LastSeptember, Children Now revealed in its second, annual survey ofchildren's directors that, for many respondents, money was their biggestheadache; in particular children's centre funding. And although nearlyall respondents were confident they'd meet Government targets for thesecond wave of children's centres, more than half reported that fundingallocations were not enough or extremely tight.

One year on and unease about the financing of children's centresremains.

Nearly a fifth of respondents still say the funding isn't enough. And 29per cent of those questioned want the Government to earmark children'scentres as a priority area for extra investment in next year'scomprehensive spending review (see Analysis, p14).