Policy and Politics
Balls criticises Tories' plans for restricted Sure Start
Children's secretary Ed Balls has criticised Conservative Party plans for children's centres to serve only the most disadvantaged families.
Mr Balls, who spoke to Nursery World at the launch of a campaign by the charity 4Children to celebrate and promote Sure Start's work among local communities, said, 'It was never part of the original vision for Sure Start to be only for the poor and I think that it would be a hugely backward step to withdraw universal services.'
Mr Balls acknowledged the need for a greater degree of involvement from health services in children's centres. 'It requires a local commitment to make sure that health services are involved,' he said. 'We do need more health visitors, but should these come from the Sure Start budget or from PCTs? The Conservatives want to cut Sure Start funding to pay for more health visitors, but I think this would be another backward step. It would be good to have health visitors working from children's centres, but for most centres it would mean cuts to their running budgets.'
When asked whether children's centres should provide daycare as part of their core services, Mr Balls replied, 'It really depends on what is available in the local area. In some areas children's centres do play an extra role in nursery education and daycare. However, in other areas there is already enough childcare provision, and we do not want to displace local providers. We don't want to mandate that every children's centre should offer daycare, because that does not make sense. However, there do need to be good links between childcare providers and children's centres.'
The launch of the 'Shout Out for a Sure Start' campaign, held last week in Westminster, was also attended by shadow minister for families Maria Miller and Liberal Democrat shadow children's minister Annette Brooke, general secretary of public sector Unison Dave Prentice, and television presenter Melinda Messenger, as well as the popular children's television character Peppa Pig.
Annette Brooke said, 'This campaign will help to showcase the good work of children's centres across the country and help people to appreciate how children's centres are supporting families.'
Meanwhile, 4Children urged childcarers to visit www.shoutoutforasurestart.org.uk to share and debate their Sure Start experiences, discuss any concerns they may have about the future of their local children's centres and find out where to go for more information about children's services in their area.
4Children has highlighted research conducted in December by Busy Bees, which found that 94 per cent of working parents surveyed said that childcare policies would influence how they voted.
