Greening: Raise council tax to save children's centres

Giving evidence to the education committee select committee today, Greening said that funding Sure Start provision was the responsibility of local authorities, adding that they can increase council tax if they feel children's centres are a local priority.

Analysis by CYP Now earlier this year revealed there had been a reduction of more than 1,000 official children's centres in England over the last seven years, with 2,501 as of February 2017, compared with 3,631 in 2010.

Councils are currently able to increase general council tax by up to 1.99 per cent, with any higher increase requiring a local referendum.

Greening said: "[Children's centres are] provision that councils are responsible for. What I'm setting out today is our national strategy and councils are able to increase council tax and manage their own revenue streams if that is what they feel is worthwhile in local communities.

"And actually there have been children's centres opened in recent years."

But Ian Mearns, Labour MP for Gateshead, said the cuts to central government funding for councils have been too deep to be rectified through a council tax hike.

"I've got to challenge that," he said to Greening.

"My own local authority is still in the process of losing around £140m a year from the revenue support grant. The cumulative loss from 2010 to 2020 will be well over £1bn."

He added: "If my local authority cuts 100 per cent of every other service they would still have to make cuts in adult social care and child care by 2020 just to balance the books.

"So they would have to say we won't empty your bin, we won't cut any grass, we'll have no leisure centres or libraries but we'll still have to make cuts in adult social care and children's services by 2020. That is completely and utterly ridiculous."

MPs quizzed Greening on a wide range of DfE policies, including the doubling of the free childcare entitlement for three- and four-year-olds to 30 hours from September.

Lucy Powell, Labour MP for Manchester Central, said she is concerned that the most disadvantaged families are missing out as the increased entitlement only applies to working families.

"The biggest indicator of how a child will do when they reach GCSE is their development at the age of five," said Powell.

"So how can you and your government justify that, of the extra £9bn that you are putting into early years support over the course of this parliament, three quarters of that will go to better-off families and less than three per cent of that money will actually reach the most disadvantaged?"

Greening said: "The original policy was designed to help people get into work and tackle the cost of childcare for working parents."

Greening also ruled out carrying out a comprehensive review of children's care, similar to one currently taking place in Scotland, saying that the Children and Social Work Act is sufficiently helping to improve the quality of care.