15 October 2007

PM Calls for action on childhood obesity

Gordon Brown has called upon parents and teachers to help tackle childhood obesity. During a visit to a breakfast club at Harris Girls’ Academy in south London, the Prime Minister noted the importance of diet and sport. He said: “I want to see a young nation growing up that is healthy and fit and we will do everything in our power to make it possible for people to know the problem and to be able to deal with it quickly. “So we're going to act early; we're going to intervene early in the future and we're going to make sure parents, when children are at an early age, realise there are problems ahead.”A survey also released shows that targets on school sport have been met early. The 2006/07 School Sport Survey found that 86 per cent of pupils now participate in at least two hours of PE and school sport per week. This means that the Government has met its target of 85 per cent of pupils doing two hours PE and school sport per week by 2008 a year ahead of schedule. I think it’s vital that children and young people are healthy and happy so that they can do well in life and I’m delighted that so many more children are now taking part in school sport.   I'll keep you posted on this important issue.

More Money for Affordable Housing

The money will improve existing social housing and regeneration projects as well as boosting the supply of low-cost housing and all regions will receive an increase of at least 15 per cent by 2010-11 compared to this year.

Labour Backs Sure Start  

Our Labour Government has backed its pledge to have a children’s Sure Start centre in every community by 2010 with a further funding boost of £351 million. 

I want to pay tribute to all the hard work that parents, practitioners and local authorities have done to make sure that young children have the best possible start in life.

The latest funding will pay for developing, extending and modifying existing centres and bring the total number to 3,500 by 2010. When the children’s centre project began the Government concentrated on providing facilities in some of the most  disadvantaged areas in the country, resulting in 1,500 centres. This will now be extended to less disadvantaged areas to build on the successful foundation already in place. We know that children’s centres in Birmingham work - they are making considerable progress in providing better services for young children and their families. The funding allocations come out of the overall Comprehensive Spending Review settlement announced as part of the 2007 Budget. 

New figures show rise in employment 

New figures were released this week showing employment is at a level of 29.1 million – the highest figure on record. The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance is down, while vacancies remain high. This means if people are able to work they can find a job.   

Those who ten years ago would have been left behind now have the chance to work and provide for their families. I'm proud that our strong and stable economy has helped deliver record numbers in work and with unemployment continuing to fall we have in our sights the ambition of reaching full employment within a generation. But the challenge for us is to find new ways of helping people develop the skills and confidence they need to take advantage of these opportunities.