The contracts are worth £18.6m over the next three years and four organisations have been picked following a competitive tender run by the London borough.
The successful bidders are national family support charity Home-Start, a company set up by two local primary schools and a nursery called Central Greenwich Children’s Centres Ltd, and Quaggy Development Trust, which already runs children’s centres in the area. Each will run centres in one of five geographic areas.
The fourth successful bidder is Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), which was set up more than 20 years ago to run the council’s leisure services. It will run centres in the eastern and southern areas of the borough.
This is the first time centres have been aligned across these five geographic areas. All are currently run by either the council, Quaggy or local schools.
Among unsuccessful bids was a move by Brookhill Children’s Centre to set up as a multi-stakeholder mutual, involving parents and staff. This group had hoped to run centres in the area that will now be managed by Home-Start.
A source close to this failed bid said: “We are very disappointed. The former children’s minister Sarah Teather said a few years back that this model would be a good fit for children’s centres. But we know of only one in the country that has succeeded and I can’t see how any more will succeed. It is difficult once you are put into the pool and have to compete against larger charities to get this kind of contract.”
A Greenwich Council spokesman said he was unable to comment on the decision until a five-day "call-in" period had expired.
