Model for Labour's Sure Start scheme on the brink of collapse

A world-renowned children's centre that provided the model for Labour's Sure Start scheme is on the brink of collapse, with its future in the hands of the newly elected Reform leadership of its local council.

- Patrick Butler

The Pen Green centre, which pioneered wraparound care and learning for pre-school children in one of the most deprived areas of Britain, was the blueprint for the much-admired early years Sure Start programme in the late 1990s.

The early education minister, Stephen Morgan, is due to visit the centre on Wednesday amid reports the government is looking to reboot Sure Start-style services as part of its child poverty strategy, expected in the autumn. The Pen Green chair, Adam Cooper, told the Guardian the centre has been struggling to stay afloat financially because of "political" local funding decisions. "I'm incredibly worried we will lose the centre. Should it go, replacing it will be impossible," he said.

The centre has been locked in a funding dispute with its local authority, North Northamptonshire, in recent years. The council's previous Tory leadership made no bones about its disdain for Pen Green, cutting its funding from £1m to £300,000 in 2022 in the face of widespread public opposition.