'Inadequate' council set to close seven children's centres
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
A council where children's services were last year rated "inadequate" by Ofsted is set to cut the number of children's centres it provides from 13 to four as part of efforts to save money.
Proposals set to be discussed by Reading Council next week will see the local authority close seven of its 13 centres in favour of four main "hubs" and three "satellite buildings" - incorporating health visiting and community maternity services.
The council said officers had searched for alternative ways of saving money but no viable alternatives in the consultation process were identified. The children's centre cuts will contribute £400,000 towards overall cuts of £1.5m being made to Reading's early help services.
As a result of the changes, a total of 33 family activity groups run by the children's centres will cease from September 2017.
There will be a reduction in children's centre posts of 33 per cent from 32.8 full-time equivalent positions to 22, resulting in redundancies from the workforce.
The proposals come despite 91.5 per cent of respondents to a consolation on the changes stating that they considered a shift to "mainly targeted support" would have a negative impact on families that would not meet thresholds for that service.
"Responses raised concerns that early identification of vulnerability and need for help would be missed for many families and there could be an escalation of social isolation and mental health and wellbeing issues," the report states.
"Under the new model, families could feel stigmatised and not access centres leading to underused services."
The council's plans will see four fully integrated children and family centre hubs will be established in the areas of highest need - delivering the core children's centre offer and providing space for additional family services. ?
"The health visiting service will be fully integrated within the children's centre offer to ensure all children under five years have universal mandated contacts to enable early identification of additional needs and secure positive health outcomes," the report states.
"It is our intention health visitors will be sited in children's centre hubs or satellite buildings along with midwifery services to provide seamless and accessible services for families."
Reading's children's services were handed Ofsted's lowest rating last August after inspectors found children being left too long in "situations of unknown and acute risk".
