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15 Oct 2009 : Column 175WH—continued
The hon. Lady asked me some specific questions on children's centres, and raised the absolutely valid but
difficult issue about Sure Start children's centres and their involvement and ability to support families, particularly those under pressure or stress or those that need somewhere to go for advice. I agree that the issues of families, family relationships, children and parenting need to be addressed when going forward. Those are very difficult subjects, because parents are responsible for their children, and family is private. None the less, we need to consider how we can develop services that parents can access and where those services should be when they are needed. Family and family responsibilities are very much issues that the Government are looking to address in a Green Paper.
On the early years foundation stage and the information the hon. Lady particularly asked for on boys, this is the first year of measuring. The information shows that many good things should be celebrated-for example, the fact that the largest increase is in early language development, and the huge progress that 100 authorities have made in narrowing the gap. In one year, the gap in achievement-as measured by this range of factors-between children in disadvantaged areas and the rest has narrowed by 1 per cent. That is very good and it needs to be sustained. However, she is quite right to say that girls continue to outperform boys. There is still a gap because girls continue to do well, although the performance of boys has improved on last year.
We need to ensure that boys are able to develop, particularly in terms of writing skills. The hon. Lady rightly pointed that out and asked what the Government are doing about it. In consultation with stakeholders and the profession, the Government are developing specific guidance and support for local authorities on how to work with and support those areas. We are considering what strategies work in ensuring that we try to close that gap-it will not be done overnight, but it needs to be done. In addition, in the local authorities where there is still an issue with the gap between the best performing and those performing not so well, the Government run a programme called "Making a Difference," which provides a specific support mechanism through which the Department works with local authorities.
In a balanced way, the Government have come to conclusions regarding the strengths, what should be celebrated and what should receive further investment of time, effort and resources. That brings me to my final major point.
Mrs. Miller: Will the Minister give way before she moves on?
Frequently, not only in the House but in local government debates, claims are made about wanting further investment, and speeches are made about why that is necessary, while suggestions are simultaneously made about cutting the very budgets that provide current services. That is the position-I will give the hon. Member for Basingstoke the last word on this-of the Conservative party. I absolutely agree that more health visitors are needed; indeed, the Secretaries of State for Health and for Children, Schools and Families have published a document today and have made it clear, in working with the profession, how we will take that forward and why it is important for those health visitors to work in partnership with Sure Start children's centres.
However, the increase in health visitors cannot be at the expense of Sure Start children's centres; it is supposed to be in addition to them. Page 3 of the Conservatives' document, "Helping new families", states clearly that they would not develop outreach worker provision, but would cut the number of outreach workers and spend £200 million on health visitors. Not only will the cut in outreach workers result in a loss of service, but it will not raise the £200 million without further cuts to the Sure Start budget. The shadow Chancellor, the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne), was pushed on this point by Nick Robinson, on the BBC, on 30 June 2009-fairly recently. He was asked:
"Are you protecting Sure Start?"
"I'm not protecting other areas. I'm not going to go into specific details of individual programs but I've made a positive decision and this is part of the choice that David Cameron and the modern Conservatives have made to protect health spending, to protect international development spending because we think those are important commitments for the kind of society we want".
So they are not making a commitment to honour the investment in Sure Start. Members of the modern
Conservative party, or whatever it wants to call itself, cannot stand in debates and say how much they value Sure Start-although I am very pleased that they do-and how much they want to see it developed, and then announce elsewhere that they are cutting the budget.
That is what the three parties are saying about this spending. I think that we all agree that Sure Start has utterly transformed the landscape of early childhood. Some things have gone right and some things have not; there is more to be done and we still need to reach out and make sure that the provision gets to those who need it most. However, it is part of a reform structure that says, "Every child does matter; we're going to put them at the heart of what we do and we're going to make sure that we invest in them," and that means not cutting budgets. This question still hangs over the modern Conservative party: are they going to cut Sure Start-yes or no?
4.55 pm
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