London council announces children's centre closure and job losses

The London Borough of Bexley is to launch a consultation next week (August 24) on the plans to remodel its Sure Start children’s centres services.
 
One centre, in Sidcup, which closed earlier this year for refurbishment, will not reopen under the proposals, leaving 13 centres covering the borough. Of these, 10 will be designated to exclusively provide childcare.
 
The remaining three children’s centres will become “children and family centres”, offering universal services such as health, maternity services, and parenting and employment courses.
 
In addition they will offer early help for families where there is domestic violence, parental mental ill-health, substance misuse or children who are at risk of exclusion or who have already been excluded from school.
 
The three main centres will be in St Austine’s, West Street and Danson, areas with traditionally high rates of domestic violence, mental ill-health, substance abuse and truancy.
 
The 10 “children’s childcare centres” will exclusively offer childcare for two- to four-year olds in order to meet the requirement for the additional childcare places for eligible working parents next year as a result of the Children and Families Act 2014.
 
The bulk of the estimated £833,000 in savings are expected to come through staff redundancies including a reduction of management. A total of 13 jobs will go.
 
Jacqueline Skinner, head of children, young people and maternity commissioning at Bexley Council, said: “What we are doing is targeting services in areas of greatest need while ensuring there continues to be services operating in each area.
 
“In terms of service delivery there is not much of a reduction, the main reduction will be in staffing and management costs.”
 
Skinner added that alternative local community venues have already taken over services offered at Sidcup’s children’s centre.
 
Bexley’s lead member for children's services, Philip Read, said: "If finally approved, this reorganisation of our children's centres will allow us to offer additional early help to families who need our support before their situation worsens. It means that we can provide that help while continuing to offer a range of high-quality childcare and universal services.
 
"All centres will still be accessible to families wherever they live in the borough but each will focus on offering a service tailored to local needs and helping those whose requirements are greatest. The changes to the service also allow us to offer greater value for money for Bexley's taxpayers.”
 
The consultation runs until October. If approved the plans would take effect from April 2016.
 
In July the government revealed that 99 children’s centres closed in the six months between 1 January and 30 June this year, bringing the total number of closures since 2010 to 250.