Oral Answers to Questions — Children, Schools and Families – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 30 November 2009.
Virendra Sharma
Labour, Ealing, Southall
2:30,
30 November 2009
How many children's centres there are in the Ealing, Southall Constituency.
Dawn Primarolo
Minister of State (Department for Children, Schools and Families) (Children, Young People and Families)
Ealing local authority has a total of 22 designated Sure Start children's centres, offering services to more than 15,600 under-fives and their families. Of those, 10 are based in the Ealing, Southall Constituency.
Virendra Sharma
Labour, Ealing, Southall
In the light of the fantastic work done by those children's centres in my Constituency, supporting some of the most vulnerable children and families, does the Minister agree that it would be disastrous if funding cuts closed two of them, as proposed by the Opposition?
Dawn Primarolo
Minister of State (Department for Children, Schools and Families) (Children, Young People and Families)
Children's centres offer a full range of services, whether it be integrated early learning and care for children, the support given to families through the health service, the employment and training advice given to parents or the support that is particularly important for fathers. As my hon. Friend says, for his community, if one in five children's centres were closed, it would devastate the performance and ability of children. That is the policy of the Opposition, and we need to push them on that to deny it.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
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The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
