His comments follow the latest evaluation findings, which reveal hugevariations in spending, and concern about whether money has been spentwisely.
Annual spending per child varied dramatically between different SureStart programmes, says the evaluation report, which looked at costeffectiveness.
On average, programmes spent 900 per child in their third year,but some spent just 350 while others spent as much as 2,500. However, there was little evidence that higher spendingprogrammes reached more children.
"It depends on where money was spent," said evaluation director EdwardMelhuish. "If you're putting a lot of money into new buildings you won'tnecessarily see better services having an impact for several years."
The report also found some Sure Starts continued to fund services thatwere not well-used and there was anecdotal evidence that parents andmainstream agencies were dissatisfied over how money was spent.
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