Integrated services: Short list created for Knowsley learning centres

Youth services will play an integral role within the centres, which will open in 2008 and 2009. The centres will be a base for co-located and information technology-based services for young people, incorporating facilities such as cinema space. Young people will decide how they should be named.

Nick Page, service director for transformation in the council's children's services department, said the centres went "a lot deeper and further" than extended schools.

"This is a real opportunity for us in Knowsley to try to reach out to young people," he said. "We're investing in ensuring that these centres will look and feel very different from traditional schools. We want to give young people a place that feels like home, rather than just another place they can utilise like a youth centre."