The centres are in five London boroughs - Hackney, Hillingdon, Islington, Kingston-upon-Thames and Lewisham - as well as Wirral, Derby, Birmingham, Rotherham, North Guildford, Truro and Herefordshire. The Department for Education and Skills said last week that the centres were chosen because they 'offer parents and children high-quality childcare, education, and family and adult support services designed to meet local needs'.
Education and skills secretary Estelle Morris described the 14 Early Excellence Centres as 'a tremendous boost for parents looking for high-quality childcare and early years education locally'. She added, 'These centres are designed to be beacons for early years and childcare services. They show how education, care and other family support can be brought together to offer integrated, holistic services for parents and young children all day and throughout the year.'
The centres also play a wider role, the DfES said, by sharing good practice with other centres and organising training activities for local practitioners.
Leasowe Nursery School has become the second Metropolitan Borough of Wirral nursery school to be awarded Early Excellence status. Its head, Mary Mitchell, said, 'We seek to provide integrated provision for children and their families. We share a site with Wirral Learning Links, which provides training with courses in language, computing and therapeutic services available to parents and the community.
'We also have two nursery classes with up to 100 nursery children on the site, and we provide a range of family support sessions including baby PEEP, a gardening project, a toy library and a child and parent cookery project. We hope to provide more as we go on. We have a speech therapist, and a health visitor attends weekly. We are very fortunate to have the full support of the council, local authority, EYDCP and local agencies.'
Fortune Park Early Years Centre is one of nine early years centres in Islington, London. It offers 65 care and education places for children aged nought to five, and six of its places are for children who have moderate to complex special educational needs.
Islington chair of education, councillor James Kempton, said, 'Fortune Park's inclusion in the Early Excellence Centre programme can only be of great benefit to all young children and their families in the borough. I know that staff at the centre will rise to the challenge of sharing what they have learned about working with young children and their families.' The total number of Early Excellence Centres in England is 49, nearly halfway to realising the Government's target of 100 centres by 2004.