Centre's bold plan to make ends meet

By Lauren Higgs Wednesday, 09 July 2008

A former Sure Start is to launch a range of services for families and under-25s, including a launderette with a mini-children's centre and a cookery school.

New facilities for Sure Start centre

The Liverpool centre remodelled to become the Five Children and Families Trust, and now plans to expand community services in an ambitious bid to become self-financing.

Robbie Davison, enterprise adviser at the trust, said: "We didn't want to be just a children's centre, so for the past three years we have been developing a sustainability plan."

The community launderette will be based in the centre of a deprived estate in the isolated Liverpool district of Speke, where the nearest such facility is four miles away.

The service will be combined with a cafe and mini-children's centre. A health centre and other community services will eventually be built on the same site.

The Five Children and Families Trust already operates nursery and kids club services from a different site in Speke, but will move all nursery services to the launderette site.

Plans to develop a cookery school, with its own bistro, are also being developed following the success of a project already running at the trust's existing premises.

The Can Cook, Will Cook scheme teaches schoolchildren and members of community groups about basic cooking and healthy eating and runs an on-site cafe. The new cookery school will be purpose-built and will sell team-building courses to large companies in a drive to generate more profit.

Davison said the trust wants to continue expanding to become a community hub, with services including youth work, education and early years projects. "We own our buildings and we want to own more. We're looking for grants and investment from the Charity Bank and Social Enterprise Investment Fund," he said.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said nurseries are increasingly looking for ways to expand services.

"It is important that children's centres look for ways to reach out to the local community to ensure that they are viable and meet the needs of children and families in the area," she said. "However, in expanding provision it is important that the core offer is not diluted."