The Claims
“The money for Sure Start is there so centres don’t have to close.”
Prime Minister David Cameron
“Conservative-run Bromley council is shutting 13 of its 16 children’s centres.”
Labour Leader Ed Miliband
“What we are doing for children in this country is we are funding education for two-year-olds for the first time.”
Prime Minister David Cameron
The Background
The Prime Minister got rather flustered today when the question of cuts to frontline services reared its ugly head in the Commons.
Ed Miliband made the unlikely gambit of urging him into a U-turn to ensure that no children’s centres have to close because of cuts to the Sure Start fund.
One London council is poised to axe 13 centres in one fell swoop, the Labour leader said.
Mr Cameron lapsed into an awkward silence for almost 20 seconds – an age at the despatch box – amid Labour jeers before declaring: “The money for Sure Start is there so centres don’t have to close.”
He’s blundered on this issue before – has he got it wrong again?
The Analysis
The fate of the nation’s 3,600 children’s centres has proved to be a highly emotive issue as the Coalition Government pushes through its programme of spending cuts.
Before the General Election, Labour claimed the Tories were out to wreck Sure Start – their flagship fund for underprivileged children.
Earlier this year, a survey of Sure Start Children’s Centre managers by the charities 4Children and Daycare Trust found that 7 per cent (the equivalent of 250 centres) believed they would be forced to close.
A FactCheck probe last month exposed the Prime Minister as less than sure-footed on Sure Start.
On that occasion, Mr Cameron told the Commons the budget for children’s centres was “going up” – a claim we decided was highly misleading.
Mr Miliband’s claim
Today it was Mr Miliband who opened the batting with an equally dubious statement.
The Labour leader told MPs: “Conservative-run Bromley council is shutting 13 of its 16 children’s centres.”
In fact, a quick phone call to the southeast London council found that to be a serious exaggeration.
Bromley isn’t closing any children’s centres in the next financial year.
A proposal to close all but three of its children’s centres has indeed been mooted, but that is still in the consultation phase and any plan that is decided would only come into play in the 2012/2013.
Mr Cameron’s claims
The Prime Minister shot back – with an equally dodgy assertion: “What we are doing for children in this country is we are funding education for two-year-olds for the first time.”
Labour were quick to point out that was untrue. In their 2007 Children’s Plan, the Labour government invested £100m to offer free early education to 20,000 two-year-olds in disadvantaged communities.
Then Mr Cameron threw out a line that led to jeers from the opposition benches: “The money for Sure Start is there so centres don’t have to close.”
Is the money still there? As FactCheck pointed out last time, funding for children’s centres is complicated.
The government replaced many different streams of funding for various children’s services, including Sure Start, with one big wad of cash: the Early Intervention Grant (EIG).
The Sure Start chunk remained the same – but only in cash terms, rather than keeping pace with inflation.
And most importantly, it’s no longer ring-fenced, so councils can take money they would have been forced to spend on Sure Start centres and channel it into other areas where they think the cash would be better spent.
So when Mr Cameron says no centres have to close, it’s difficult to say he’s wrong as a matter of logic.
Theoretically, a local council that desperately wants to keep all its centres open can.
But only at the expense of other services for young people – and the bottom line is that the pot of money is shrinking, leaving councils with very tough choices as they set their budgets.
According to the government’s own figures, in 2011-12 the amount to be dished out through the EIG is 10.9 per cent lower than the total funding in 2010-11.
Labour has released new figures from the authoritative House of Commons Library which suggest that £50 less will be spent on the average child across England.
In some of the country’s most deprived areas, like Tower Hamlets in east London and Knowsley on Merseyside, the reductions are in the region of £100 per child.
Children’s centres may not be closing in Bromley but in Barnet, also run by the Conservatives, they are. The 21 existing centres in the north London borough will shrink to 13.
The verdict
There was plenty of loose language in the Commons today. Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband made claims that were flatly untrue.
But after having been caught out by FactCheck last month, this time Mr Cameron put his slightly embarrassing hesitation to good use. To claim that “the money for Sure Start is there so centres don’t have to close” isn’t technically untrue.
His opponents will be quick to point out that the spirit of what he said was misleading, certainly to the casual observer.
The reality is that the government’s programme of cuts means less money will be spent on Britain’s children and Sure Start centres are closing as we speak.
