Councillors in Sunderland have approved plans to create a "hub and spoke" model for delivering children's centre services, resulting in fewer Ofsted inspections and contributing to a 1.7m cut in spending.

Council plans to cut £1.7m from its children’s centre budget from April. Image: Paul Cousans

The model will see five out of 17 centres allocated as designated hubs in different areas of the city, while the remaining buildings will offer services related to the five hubs.

This means there will be a reduction in inspections from Ofsted from 17 to five, which the council hopes will save money as a result of less preparation, self evaluation, improvement plans and annual conversations with the inspectorate.

The council plans to cut £1.7m from the children’s centre budget from April.

Sandra Mitchell, Sunderland’s head of early intervention, said: "This framework has been planned to ensure that families with children under-five in every community still have access to a centralised children's centre along with the other buildings within the community which help deliver the same services.

"Working with residents and community groups the local ward councillors will decide which building becomes the designated children's centre, based on an agreed set of criteria which determines the best fit to meet local needs.

"The main difference between a designated children's centre and a delivery site is that not every delivery site will have a reception and information available to parents at all times, only when it is staffed when an activity is being delivered."

The authority has said monitoring and evaluation of all centre activities will continue because Ofsted will scrutinise the centres connected to each hub in a single inspection, allowing parents to use the Ofsted judgment of the designated hub as an indicator of the standard in the remaining centres.

In addition to the 17 centres, a community board will be established to strengthen the involvement of parents in the running of the children’s centres.