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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Patrick Butler Social policy editor

Future of world-renowned children’s centre in hands of Reform UK

Children playing outside at Pen Green, including a girl on a tricycle
Children playing at Pen Green nursery. The centre has been locked in a funding dispute with North Northamptonshire council in recent years. Photograph: John Robertson/The Guardian

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

The Pen Green Centre, which pioneered wrap-around care and learning for preschool children in one of the most deprived areas of the UK, was the blueprint for Labour’s totemic early years Sure Start programme in the late 1990s.

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