To ask the Minister of Education what additional support he will be providing Sure Starts to help them meet the rise in costs resulting from the increase in the minimum wage by the UK government.

As I have outlined previously, stabilisation of Sure Start will be an important first step in the development of an Executive Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) strategy.

My Department has been engaging closely with the Department of Health which administers the Sure Start programme, to identify and quantify factors relevant to stabilisation, including costs. However, as I have also previously said, stabilisation of Sure Start will be subject to the Executive making available the required funding.