News

A shortage of teachers could undermine the government’s goal to have 2,500 children’s centres up and running by 2008.

The fears were revealed in planning guidance issued by the government to local authorities, detailing how they should develop Sure Start children’s centres.

According to the guidance, every children’s centre that will provide early years provision must as a minimum employ an early years teacher on a half-time basis.

The document goes on to state that most centres will exceed this, and that all centres offering integrated child care and early learning should employ a full-time teacher within 12 to 18 months of opening.

However officials admitted in the guidance that “in some areas of the country, local authorities have found it difficult to recruit teachers for children’s centres”.

They suggest that locating children’s centres at primary schools “could lead to better ways of using existing teachers” and help solve the problem.