The council, which approved its budget this week, now plans to reduce the number of individually managed children's centres from 81 to 53. Opposition to the proposals has been fierce, with parents joining forces to form a group called Save Our Children’s Centres.
But Roy Perry, the council’s cabinet member for children’s services, has attempted to reassure residents that the changes will not mean the closure of 28 centres.
"Painful as it is, we cannot escape the fact that we have to identify around £20m of savings in children's services alone," he said. "Because we are rightly protecting services for the most vulnerable children, we have to find that £20m from around £60m of discretionary spending, which includes children's centres.
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