In Practice: Case study - Firemen rescue Sure Start services

Jo Stephenson finds out how the fire service can come to the rescue.

Objectives: Flooding had driven a playgroup in Haydon Bridge,Northumberland, from its regular base. Meanwhile, a breastfeeding groupneeded a home and a midwife was looking for somewhere in the area to setup baby weighing sessions.

Then a parent got chatting to a firefighter down the pub and an ideabegan to take shape.

Sure Start managers in Northumberland had already spotted the potentialof fire stations as under-used community resources. And Haydon BridgeFire Station seemed like it could be the solution, providing a home forall those services.

The issues: Like many rural fire stations, Haydon Bridge hosts aretained fire crew who only use the building for training for a fewhours a week. As it already belongs to the county council it isrent-free. But the space identified was used for weight training by thefirefighters. Plus the playgroup needed to meet Ofsted requirementsincluding health and safety. One big question was around emergencycall-outs. Firefighters would drive into the station and the enginewould zoom out at speed. Another was making sure the project could runrelatively independently, explains Jackie McCormick, children's centreprogramme manager for West Northumberland.