News

Although children's centres play an important role in the implementation of the bill, the centres have virtually no funding attached to them, children's professionals have warned.

Speaking at a conference on children's services organised by the charity 4Children, delegates said children's centres had a "pathetic amount of revenue budget". They were being asked to employ a full-time teacher with no extra funding.

Carey Oppenheim, a senior policy adviser to the prime minister, said that children's minister Margaret Hodge had the issue high up on her agenda.