Council to close more than half of its children's centres

The closures are part of a substantial cost-cutting programme for Derbyshire County Council's children's services, which has already seen its budget cut from £127m to £90m, with plans in place to cut it further to £68m by 2019.

The move follows a review, which attracted 1,264 responses, and will focus remaining centres in areas of high deprivation. Also considered was the condition of buildings and transport links.

Under the plans, which were voted for by cabinet members this week, 21 of its existing 54 centres will stay open.

Alternative venues are being sought for two of the centres earmarked for closure, in Newhall and Sandicare, while outreach work will continue to take place in Stonebroom, despite its centre closing.

In addition, while Belper's centre is on the closures list, the council is talking with a local voluntary group about running services from the existing building. The council is also in talks with other voluntary and community groups to see if some of the centres set for closure can remain open.

In total, the centre closures will see the loss of 143 full-time equivalent posts across children's and business services. The council is in talks with unions, with staff being offered voluntary redundancy or re-deployment where possible.  

Derbyshire's cabinet member for children's services, Jim Coyle, said: "We don't want to be in a position where we have to reduce services or close facilities like children's centres, but today we faced a difficult decision and had to make a very difficult choice.

"Severe budget cuts mean we don't have the funds we need to run services in the way we have before, so have to look at targeting our resources at residents who need it the most."

Last month, Buckinghamshire County Council revealed that the future of 35 of its children's centres was in doubt as it considered plans to cut costs.

This came shortly after Birmingham City Council announced that children's centre closures were inevitable in the city.

The Department for Education revealed in April that more than 1,000 children's centres have either been closed or downgraded since 2010. This followed figures gathered by CYP Now that showed an additional 400 children's centres were at risk from cuts or closures this year.

The DfE is due to publish its delayed strategy for the future of children's centres over the summer.