Nursery World - MPs say funding is short for integrated services

The Government's goal of creating fully integrated children's services outlined in Every Child Matters 'will fail to be realised without significant and sustained additional investment', an influential committee of MPs warned last week. The Commons Education and Skills Select Committee said, 'We are doubtful that a policy as ambitious as Every Child Matters can be funded in the main from existing budgets.' It called for 'additional dedicated resources, cross-departmentally and ring-fenced if appropriate' to enable its successful implementation.

The Commons Education and Skills Select Committee said, 'We are doubtful that a policy as ambitious as Every Child Matters can be funded in the main from existing budgets.' It called for 'additional dedicated resources, cross-departmentally and ring-fenced if appropriate' to enable its successful implementation.

The committee's chairman, Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, told Nursery World, 'We have consistently said that we don't think this can be done without serious new money. After the election, all of us who are interested in this issue have got to lobby for more money.'

However, although the committee had been critical of aspects of Government policy, he felt that the overall tone of its report had been 'positive and constructive' and he believed that was how children's minister Margaret Hodge regarded it.

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