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Video: Government minister visits Sure Start centre
Government education minister Ed Balls took time out from a busy schedule to play games with toddlers and chat with parents during a whistlestop visit to Peterborough on Friday.
Government education minister Ed Balls took time out from a busy schedule to play games with toddlers and chat with parents during a whistlestop visit to Peterborough on Friday.The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families visited the Sure Start Centre, in Scalford Drive, Welland, to mark the opening of the 3,000th Sure Start Centre in the country and praise their achievements.
He chose to pop into the centre along with a clutch of others on a tour of the country, to see what a difference it had made to the lives of families in the area.
And he appeared to be impressed by the facilities on offer, including baby massage, speech and language therapy and a host of toys.
He even crouched down to talk to toddlers and got stuck into playing with the train set.
He said: "I came to see what the centres are doing to transform the lives of children and support parents.
"The parents are saying they are wonderful and they love them. They bring the community together. They come when their children are one and two months old, and even for pre-natal checks.
First Steps Children's Centre
The centre is one of three centres in Peterborough managed by Family Care, a city-based voluntary organisation, in partnership with Peterborough City Council.
It covers Welland, Bluebell and Dogsthorpe and provides services to 1,230 children.
They support children even before they are born, through a team of professionals, including a midwife, health visitor , speech and language therapist, family support team and early education team.
In 10 years, there are now 3,000 children's centres across the country, benefiting 2.4 million families.
By March 2010, there will be 3,500 centres providing access to services for all families including childcare, expert advice on healthcare, advice on parenting for mums and dads and links to training and job opportunities.
"This centre in Peterborough is doing an absolutely brilliant job.
"It makes a big difference to parents."
Roger Payne (28) and his wife, Melissa (30), of Eastern Avenue, Dogsthorpe, have been coming to the centre since their two-year-old son Owen was a baby. They have recently started bringing along their six-month old daughter Fallon.
Mr Payne said: "Owen loves it. I can't believe how much stuff they have to do here."
Mrs Payne said: "It's really, really good for him, interacting with children at an early age. I don't think there was a lot around before this opened. It helped me, too, as a first time mum."
Eleanor Manigan (29), from Chestnut Avenue, came along to the centre for the first time with one of her two daughters, Maisey (3).
She said: "I came in this morning for a midwife appointment, saw all these lovely toys and thought I'm going to stay.
"I think it's great. There's so much information."The set up is really nice and everyone is very welcoming."
Cabinet Member for Education and Children's Services at Peterborough City Council Cllr Stephen Goldspink said: "You only have to look at the number of parents coming in to see how valued the centre is."
Next page: Further education pledge</strongFurther education pledge
Ed Balls vowed that every pupil in Peterborough will be able to stay on at school or college after a government education quango miscalculated the number of children that would be seeking sixth form places.
In March, it was revealed that the mistake by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), had hit schools across the country.
In Peterborough, it meant head- teachers at nine schools with sixth forms faced being given smaller budgets than originally planned for the next academic year .
A Learning and Skills Council spokesperson said the organisation apologised for the confusion caused by a letter to schools in early March which had stated that pupil forecasts were final rather than provisional allocations.
Speaking about the error , Mr Balls said he had managed to secure more funding so any pupils who want to stay on in September, can.
He said: "There was a difficulty in March. We had more young people saying they wanted to stay in education than we had the money to pay for.
"But there is going to be 650 million more so children across the country, including Peterborough, that want to go to school or college will get that opportunity in September.
"I can guarantee every young person in Peterborough can stay in education if they want to."
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