24th November 2011

MP backs commitment to early years learning and childcare

 

Gordon Henderson MP is backing the Government’s investment in free early education and children’s centres across the country. He believes that it is important to get children’s education right early to set them more surely on the path to future success.

 

Last year, the Department for Education extended the entitlement to free early education for three and four-year olds from twelve and a half hours per week to fifteen hours per week. This week Sarah Teather, Minister for Children and Families, announced that now two-year olds from the poorest families will also be entitled to fifteen hours per week of free early education. In Kent, there are 3300 families with at least one child aged two-years old that will be eligible.

 

The Government has also provided enough funding in the Early Intervention Grant to maintain a network of children’s centres, such as Sure Starts, across the country. Children’s centres provide important support to children and families, particularly the most vulnerable. The local authority of Kent has the most children’s centres in the country at 96 and 7 of these are in Sittingbourne and Sheppey.

 

Mr Henderson said:

 

“It is great to hear that even more young children in my constituency are eligible for free early education and that the valuable children’s centres in Sittingbourne and Sheppey will be given the funding to continue to provide a safe and secure learning environment for young children and their families.”