Co-location 'a threat to centres'

Andy Killeen, programme manager at Cherry Tree Children's Centre in Birmingham, said co-location could lead to a conflict of interest between governors of the children's centre and the extended school.

Government guidance offers a number of options for governance of children's centres in schools. These include a board independent of the school or a shared governing board.

But Killeen told delegates at last week's CYP Now Sustainable Children's Centre conference a shared governing board may lean towards the interests of the school, rather than the children's centre.

"Schools could become the dominant partners," he said. "There is a lack of understanding and priority given to early years issues and the pressure of exam results and SAT scores could become dominant. It's possible children's centres could just be absorbed into schools."

He added some co- located schools and children's centres may decide to pool budgets, which could see money diverted away from early years and into schools by the governing board. "If you pool budgets with heads and governors who have been working alongside schools and school-aged children for years, more of the money will go towards what they know," he said.

But Ann Gross, deputy director of children's centres and extended schools at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, told the same conference she expects most children's centres to be co-located with primary schools.

- See news, p3.