Major charity set to cease children's centres provision

The charity currently has contracts with four local authorities to run a total of 18 children's centres and nurseries, but told CYP Now that when these expire at the end of the year it does not intend to continue with the work.

Existing provision includes two children's centres in Bradford, three in Devon, three in Dorset, and six in Oldham. The charity said that, in the vast majority of cases, the services will be transferred to a new provider by the respective councils.

The charity said its decision to withdraw from management of children's centres follows a review conducted in 2014, which resulted in it opting to focus its work on vulnerable 10- to 18-year-olds.

The charity already does a lot of work around supporting children at risk of sexual exploitation, those affected by parental substance misuse, helping young people experiencing mental health problems.

“Following a strategic review in 2014 of how we could achieve the highest impact for children, The Children's Society trustees found that, while a range of other organisations provide services for younger children, older children aged 10 to 18 often lacked the same levels of support,” Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children’s Society, said.
 
“We therefore took the decision to focus our work on this older age group with a combination of our direct services, based on a strong evidence base, and public policy work.
 
“As an organisation committed to helping children facing poverty and neglect, we felt that we could be most effective in helping these older children who need support.

"This resulted in the decision to manage a careful and sensitive exit of our children's centre contracts with local authorities.
 
“We believe that this way our work can have an even greater impact on those who need our support the most.”

News of the charity's withdrawal comes as total numbers of children's centres across England continues to fall.

A total of 99 children's centres closed between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2015.

Michael Jameson, strategic director of children's services in Bradford, said: “The council is working with The Children's Society to contact those parents affected and we are doing all we can to help parents find alternative childcare places.

"This change does not affect the children’s centre services that The Children’s Society delivers in Bradford which will be operating as normal and which will transfer to another provider after July.”

Jean Stretton, leader of Oldham Council and cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said the running of the six children's centres will transfer in April to Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, along with the council's other ten centres.

Stretton said: “This contract with Bridgewater enables us to transform our early years’ offer, within a wider 0- to 19-year-old approach, aimed at giving every child the best possible start in life and reducing health inequalities.”

A spokesman for Devon County Council said: “The Children’s Society's decision means that any new contract will be awarded after a procurement process  to another provider, and that staff currently working in those children’s centres will transfer under TUPE regulations to whoever the new provider is.”