Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 2007 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

RESOLVED that the notes of the meeting of the Informal Member Group on Budgetary Issues held on 14 June 2007 be noted.

RESOLVED that the report on the actions taken as a result of the Committee’s decisions at previous meetings, and the updated report on progress with Select Committee Topic Reviews, be noted.

Mr J D Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Education and School Improvement; Dr I Craig, Director of Operations; Mrs A Gamby, Head of Early Years/Childcare, Children, Families and Education Directorate, will attend the meeting at 10.05 am to answer Members’ questions on this item.

Mrs Dean and Mr Hart declared personal interests in this Item as Members of Steering Groups on Children’s Centres which had yet to be established.

(1)       Mr J D Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Education and School Improvement;  Dr I Craig, Director of Operations;  Mrs A Gamby, County Early Education and Childcare Officer;  and Ms J Smith, Children’s Centre Project Manager, Children, Families and Education Directorate, attended the meeting to answer Members’ questions on this item, which covered the following issues:-

Strategy for Provision of Children’s Centres and Criteria for Site Selection

(2)       In answer to questions from Mr Hart, Dr Eddy and Mr Smyth, Dr Craig and Mrs Gamby explained that the Government had adopted a 10-year National Childcare Strategy.  As part of this, LEAs were required to establish Children’s Centres to provide universal coverage of their areas by 2010.  The DfES had issued prescriptive guidance on the facilities to be provided and criteria for site selection, including where a Children’s Centre should be ‘full-core’ or ‘partial-core’.

(3)       In Round One, Children’s Centres were required to cover the 20% most deprived wards (subsequently ‘super output areas’ replaced wards as the geographical unit for measuring deprivation).  KCC had established 20 Children’s Centres in Round 1.

(4)       In Round Two, Children’s Centres were required to cover at least the 30% most deprived super output areas.  KCC had been given a target of 52 Round Two Children’s Centres and was required to have them all designated by April 2008.

Three in order to fill in all the gaps in Children’s Centre coverage.  KCC expected to have to provide some 30-35 Round Three Children’s Centres.  There would then be approximately 105 Children’s Centres in Kent providing coverage for the whole County.

(6)       Dr Craig emphasised that, in all cases, KCC only proposed sites for Children’s Centres.  The actual decision on whether a site met the national criteria and should therefore be approved was for GOSE/DfES.

(7)       In answer to a question from Mr Truelove, Mr Simmonds confirmed that, although it was a Government requirement to provide Children’s Centres, KCC fully supported this policy.

Capital Funding

(8)       In answer to questions from Dr Eddy, Mr Truelove and Mr Hart, Dr Craig explained that the DfES had made available a capital allocation for Round Two Children’s Centres which worked out at approximately £200K per Centre.  This was significantly less generous than the funding made available in Round One.  Capital cost was therefore a consideration in site selection because any cost over £200K would have to be met from the County Council’s own capital budget.  This factor, and the short timescale, meant that school sites were often the preferred location for Children’s Centres.

(9)       In answer to questions from Mr Bullock and Mr Scholes, Dr Craig said that the capital allocation of £200K for each Children’s Centre appeared to be standard throughout the country.  LEAs had lobbied the DfES unsuccessfully for an increase in this allocation.

Revenue Funding and Services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.