Prime Minister visits Streatham to open 3,500th Sure Start Centre
Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Hitherfield Primary School and Children’s Centre in Streatham yesterday to open Britain’s 3,500th Sure Start Centre, accompanied by Health Secretary Andy Burnham and Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls.
The Sure Start centre is the tenth to have been opened across the Streatham parliamentary constituency, providing childcare, parenting advice, healthcare, family support and helping parents get back into work or training.
By coincidence, Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham, attended Hitherfield nursery in his early years.
The Prime Minister used his visit to Hitherfield to launch new plans to boost childcare and maternity care. The measures include providing expectant parents with a named contact at a local Sure Start Children’s Centre and appointing a panel of specialists to advise on food in nurseries.
He also announced a boost in free childcare for three and four year-olds, increasing to 15 hours per week, as well as a consultation on giving pregnant mothers an assessment of health and social care needs, risks and choices by the twelfth week of pregnancy.
Commenting, Mr Umunna said: “As a governor of Sunnyhill Children’s Centre and speaking to parents on the doorstep, I know the real difference which Sure Start Centres make for families locally.
“As well as ensuring children get the best start in life, the centres help support parents’ aspirations through training and employment.
“I am immensely proud of our ten Sure Start Children’s Centres and that the Prime Minister came to Streatham to open the country’s 3,500th centre. This is an incredible achievement considering that in 1997, there were no Sure Start Centres at all.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “Over the last 10 years we’ve been building children centres in every community. It’s the revolution that we started 10 years ago with children centres spreading to the whole of the country.
