The prime minister insisted the Sure Start budget was "going up" from £2.2m to £2.3m at PMQs today - yet it is the Early Intervention Grant that is increasing.
Ed Miliband accused David Cameron of cutting funding to Sure Start by 9 per cent at Prime Minister’s Questions today, citing research from the Daycare Trust which warned 250 Sure Start centres face the axe; however, the prime minister insisted the Sure Start budget was “going up” from £2,212 million to £2,297m, saying:
“We have maintained the money for sure start. We have maintained the money for children’s centres… The budget is going up.”
And yet it is not the Sure Start budget that is being protected – it is the Early Intervention Grant (EIG) which is increasing from £2.2 billion in 2011-12 to £2.3 bn in 2012-3.
The EIG is provided to councils to pay for Sure Start, but it is the pot of money from which councils also pay for the careers advice service Connexions; disabled children’s short breaks; the youth opportunity fund that supports community projects; and several other programmes.
The total expenditure that would have been allocacted to these programmes in 2010-11 had the EIG not been created was £2.5 bn. As the Department for Education explains:
“In 2011-12, the overall amount to be allocated through the EIG is 10.9% lower than the aggregated funding that makes up the notional baseline in 2010-11. In 2012-13 it is 7.5 per cent below 2010-11.”
Sure Start may indeed see spending rises – if councils decide to cut so deep elsehwere in EIG programmes as to be able to make up the reduction required overall. But if Sure Start faces an equal fate to those programmes it is now competing against, it will face 11% cuts in 2011-12. Either way, the prime minister’s robust statement in the house, that Sure Start spending is rising, is a misleading description of reality at best.
47 Responses to “Cameron: Sure Start budget “going up”; the reality? Sure Start is under threat”
shavedorspiked
@LondonStatto
The evidence is not that the funding for SureStart is “an amount higher”, he was talking about a completely different thing (the EIG). To make it worse the number getting bigger did not exist last year (because the EIG did not exist). How can something that does not exist get bigger??
The only possible way to compare last year and this year is to look at aggregated funding and that has fallen by 10.9%!!
Cameron is a lying toad.
Anon E Mouse
What a useless article. Is the figure going up or not?
Save Our Surestart hahahahaha
scandalousbill
Anon,
Perhaps this statement from the 4children website will clarify matters”
“The charities are calling on Local Authorities to prioritise funding for Sure Start Children’s Centres – whose budget was protected in cash terms in the Government’s Spending Review, though the ring-fencing of the money was removed.
The national survey suggests that over the next 12 months:
250 (7%) will close or are expected to close, affecting an estimated 60,000 families
2,000 (56%) will provide a reduced service
3,100 (86%) will have a decreased budge
Staff at 1,000 centres (28%) have been issued with ‘at risk of redundancy’ notices
http://www.4children.org.uk/information/show/ref/2302
While the EIG rose marginally from 2.2 to2.3 billion, (in the context of present inflation levels hardly and increase) the constraints from the multiplicity of services supported by the EIG will most likely face a pretty significant cut in operational terms. Given that the impact of these cuts will affect working class families the most, and in consideration of your previous posts in which you claim a strong affinity and membership within the working class, particularly NMW earners, I really don’t see what it is you are laughing at.
Anon E Mouse
scandalousbill – You really don’t see why I’m laughing do you?
This article is about the Surestart budget not “going up”. IT IS.
It maybe under threat in the future – what isn’t? – but to keep constantly publishing speculative articles like this one shows how totally useless Labour are. Where’s the “Double Dip” recession? The only reason they seem to be doing well is because of the total ineptitude of the government.
You have tuition fees that will be better for students and they screw that announcement up. The banks are paying more in taxes and they screw that up.
The government need Alistar Campbell.
People are even blaming the government for decisions that are being taken by local councils and it is going to backfire on the Labour Party I guarantee.
I always go back to Kinnock and his speech against Deggsy and Co because that’s coming back and I’m afraid that with the clear limited ability of Ed Miliband the whole thing is going to be a bag of spanners.
I laugh because it’s pathetic.
I was initially brought up on the council estate in Hattersley, (my grandad was a Labour councillor in Manchester and my parents jumped the housing list) got 2 o’levels first time round, 4 in total, then a City & Guilds followed by an HND in the Royal Navy.
My working class credentials are flawless. Yours?
scandalousbill
Anon,
You say:
“This article is about the Surestart budget not “going up”. IT IS.”
In addition to the reference from 4children in my previous post, you can look at Cathy Newman’s fact check. In realistic terms, it is not.
http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-is-cameron-sure-about-that-sure-start-budget/5682
The risk of a double dip recession is still present, Tory coalition policies have made the UK more susceptible to Global economic fluctuation and inflation. A rise in interest rates will kill off anything that could be beneficial from the Merlin Project. I think a flat lined growth period is most likely and that it will last beyond the next parliament. Any recovery will be jobless in nature.
As for my background, I was a Steelworker who educated myself to graduate level and currently run my own IT business. As I was not destitute, I was not eligible for any funding. I disagree that students will get a better deal from government policies. A token concern for the lowest income level student does not justify 9K fees. Those in work who wish to advance themselves, as I did, through education, will face a formidable economic barrier.