At the Kids' Clubs Network annual conference in London last week, Sure Start minister Catherine Ashton said there would be 240 extended schools in England by 2006, at least one for each of the 150 local authorities.
Baroness Ashton said, 'Our ambition now is to provide integrated support that families want. We want an infrastructure for our youngest children as lasting and solid as the school and health system.'
The funding will be aimed at disadvantaged areas initially, then rolled out to the rest of the country. A Department for Education and Skills spokeswoman said 61 extended schools were expected in the first year, one for every Excellence in Cities area. They would then follow in 25 Excellence 'clusters' in non-urban areas.
Extended schools will offer childcare, health and social care, family learning, parenting support, study support, lifelong learning, sports, arts and ICT access.
The DfES spokeswoman acknowledged that aspects of the scheme were similar to the New Community Schools programme in Scotland, first piloted in 1999 and being extended to all local authorities by 2006 and to all schools by 2007.
Baroness Ashton said, 'Extend-ed services help improve children's motivation, behaviour and achievements. They remove barriers to learning and help teachers focus on their core job of teaching. By supporting pupils, parents and communities, they help schools focus on raising standards.'
But Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, warned that the Government had not yet put a regulatory framework in place for extended schools. She said, 'We need urgent clarification of how quality of care in schools will be inspected.
Government-funded development on this scale is unacceptable outside the national standards for under-eights daycare and childminding.
'Don't babies and young children cared for in school-based childcare have the same right to protection as those in nurseries or with childminders?'
Anne Longfield, chief executive of the Kids' Clubs Network, said there was evidence to show that out-of-school childcare and study support helped children's educational attainment, but although there were now 8,000 out-of-school clubs, lack of premises prevented many more being set up.
Extended schools would be particularly important for rural and disadvantaged areas 'as a one-stop shop for children and families, in and out of school,' she added.
Teaching unions welcomed extended schools as a way of reducing teachers'
workload and said they should play a central role in how the policy was developed.
NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy said, 'Crucial to extended schools must be the availability of social services and psychological support to help vulnerable children.' He said local authorities should now accept responsibility for tackling problems currently dealt with by teachers.
NASUWT general secretary Eamonn O'Kane said, 'Obviously, the schools will require to be properly resourced and clear distinctions made between the roles of the teacher and other professional staff in the school site.' If these issues were addressed, he said he thought extended schools would fulfil and develop 'the concept of community schools which was first pioneered many years ago by some progressive local education authorities'.
Extended schools and children's centres are seen as key to the Government's vision of providing integrated and sustainable childcare provision.
This Government is exposing our children to unnecessary risk by encouraging the development of unregulated childcare.
Margaret Lochrie, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said extended schools were 'an exciting and challenging policy'.
