What plans she has to extend the Sure Start programme.

The Government intend to develop 3,500 Sure Start children's centres—one for every community—by 2010. There are currently about 400 designated children's centres, most developed from existing provision such as Sure Start local programmes and early excellence centres. About £435 million has been made available to local authorities in 2004–06 to develop centres in disadvantaged areas. From March next year, £947 million will be available for local authorities to create 2,500 children's centres by March 2008.

I thank my hon. Friend for that very welcome answer. I visited the Tinsley Sure Start scheme in my Constituency recently, and hope to visit many similar schemes in the future. What impressed me most was the way that health and education professionals worked together to deliver a combined and integrated service for parents and children, some of whom are the most needy in our communities. Will she give an assurance that that close working relationship between health and education professionals will be maintained when the Sure Start scheme is mainstreamed to local authorities?

As my hon. Friend rightly says, that is imperative. Indeed, the concept behind Sure Start and the children's centres was that there should be complete integration of services for young children at the point of delivery. Integrated services mean that parents do not have to go knocking on a number of doors. We know that that integration makes a real difference to children's well being in the early years and to their achievements later on.

It is imperative that the health services are involved. On my visits to children's centres, I have been very encouraged to see the presence of the health services, which even manage some centres. I welcome that, and would like the practice to be more widespread.