Péter Garai, Deputy State Secretary for Social Inclusion at the Ministry of Human Resources provided information on the next planning and funding period of the „Sure Start, Sure Future!” programme announced as part of the New Széchenyi Plan on Friday in Kerepes.
The Deputy State Secretary stressed the importance of the programme as the foundation of inclusion programmes, and confirmed that the project will continue under any circumstances with local and EU funding. Péter Garai said that some 7,600 children in total had visited the Children’s Centres by the end of last year.
During the 2007–2013 fiscal planning period, 100 Children’s Centres were established, some one half of which are still in the EU development phase. As of 2012, Sure Start was the first programme that, following the end of the project that was funded in its initial phase by the Norway Grants and the European Union, switched to local funding; in 2012, 41 of the Children’s Centres completing the EU project received local funding, and 43 in 2013.
After the professional reforms and development implemented after the change of governments, the network of Sure Start Children’s Centres has become a model programme. The Kerepes „Smile Castle” Children’s Centre was opened in September 2011, and the institution has since been visited by almost a thousand children.
(State Secretariat for Social Inclusion)
