Children's centres in Wirral set for major overhaul
Laura McCardle
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Wirral Borough Council is considering a major shake-up of the region's children's centres in an effort to save money and reduce the number of child social care referrals.
A council report reveals that the authority wants to re-organise its children’s centre provision, putting a greater emphasis on early intervention.
The authority currently manages 16 children’s centres, but wants to halve that number by 2016.
Under the plans, four children's centres will become “main hubs” and be supported by a further four outreach centres, which will provide targeted support to families.
In addition, the council has earmarked two of the existing 16 centres – Leasowe and Ganney’s Meadow nursery schools – to offer extended services to families as part of its childcare provision.
The authority is also considering plans to transfer the ownership of four centres to co-located schools to use to deliver free childcare for two-, three- and four-year-olds as part of their existing provision.
The use of the remaining two centres is to be discussed with the authority’s partners.
Outlining the aim of the shake-up, the report states: “The children’s centre offer becomes an integral part of the early help offer through effective identification and support of children and families who need targeted early help.
“An overarching aim is to safely reduce the number of children referred to social care or accessing specialist/statutory services.”
The report also reveals that the council hopes to cut £2m from the service’s £6m budget by 2016.
A second equalities report shows that the plans will require a cut in the number of staff working in children's centre to achieve some of the savings.
A further report, the Wirral Early Years and Children Centre Review, reveals that there were 110 children’s centre staff employed by the council in July 2014 and that this would be reduced to 43 under the proposed structure.
Graham Burgess, chief executive of Wirral Borough Council, said the authority wants to keep services despite huge financial pressures.
"By 2017, Wirral Council's grant from central government will have been cut by 57 per cent in just five years," he said.
"While we have protected as much as possible, the scale of the cuts we are facing means that it is inevitable that some changes will have to be made.
"Unlike many other local authorities, we are not closing our children's centres, but have instead sought to find a fair option that keeps them open, but still helps our budget position by restructuring how we provide some of our services."
A six-week consultation on the plans is due to be launched.
