<p>Flying Start Provision in the Cynon Valley</p>

Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:51 pm on 22 June 2016.

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Photo of Carl Sargeant Carl Sargeant Labour 2:51, 22 June 2016

I think the Member raises a question that I’m familiar with from other parts of targeted services. I know your colleague Mike Hedges used to allude to that around Communities First, again, about boundaries, but there are always some that are in and some that are out. Flying Start is an excellent programme, but it’s targeted using income data provided by the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs, and the data allow local authorities to focus on the geographical area with the highest proportion of children under four years of age living in income-benefit households as an indicator of poverty. It is something that I’ve asked my team to look at—the whole strategy about our poverty intervention around communities, so Communities First, Families First, Flying Start: what do they do and how can we get into those communities best? So, your question isn’t lost on me; it is something that we are looking at, but, at the moment, it is statistically based and there will be some young people who miss out on this. It’s something that I’m very interested in in trying to resolve those issues.