Children's centres are facing the biggest overhaul in their relatively brief history. Funding cuts across local government are forcing many councils to slash children centre budgets, close sites and scale back the family, health and early education services on offer. Meanwhile, changes in government policy could take centres full circle with a return to the targeted support envisaged in the original Sure Start model.
A report published by the House of Commons education select committee in December called for the core purpose of centres to be "reviewed and reshaped".
Over the past three years, protected funding for centres has disappeared, first morphing into a broader early intervention grant and, since April 2013, becoming part of councils' general funding. According to the All-Party Parliamentary Sure Start Group's 2013 report Best Practice for Sure Start, children's centre budgets will have been cut by £0.9bn between 2010/2011 and 2014/2015.
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