Scores of youth and children's centres to close in Doncaster

A council report reveals that the closure of eight children’s centres and nine youth centres has already been approved by a "corporate asset review", but the authority is yet to decide which buildings to close.

The move will leave 12 children’s centres and eight youth centres across Doncaster.

The council wants to transfer the ownership of the centres earmarked for closure to schools or voluntary and community groups in a bid to save £401,000 from its children and young people’s services budget.

Under the plans, services provided by those children’s and youth centres earmarked for closure will be delivered through other existing council facilities.

Ros Jones, mayor of Doncaster, is expected to announce plans for a public consultation on which centres to close.

She told CYP Now that the council wants to invest its limited funding in delivering high quality services, rather than on running costs for buildings.

She said: “I expect high quality services for our children and young people to be fully accessible to everyone in Doncaster – that should be either in an existing building that they can easily attend, or through outreach services delivered in other venues.

“I want to see a proper consideration of how we can make better use of our buildings in communities across all our services, not just children’s services, so that we can retain as many local centres as possible.

“I expect a full and detailed financial appraisal, clearly outlining what the implications of the different options are when they are brought forward by officers.”

Last month, a Freedom of Information request carried out by Unison found that local authorities have merged or closed 292 children's centres over the past four years after reducing their spend on the service by £82m.