Parents tell of joy after Save Our Centres campaign victory

In December news emerged that Brighton and Hove City Council was looking to save £779,000 of money allocated to run children’s centres in the 2015/16 budget.

The full extent of the proposed cuts was made clear in Argus reports with groups, staff and advice services at risk and a handful of centres under threat of closure.

Four of the 12 children’s centres were under threat and services across the board faced cutbacks. Funding for voluntary organisations the Early Years Project and the Brighton Unemployed Centre, library drop-in groups and Stay and Play groups, jobs and health visits could also be reduced.

Parents faced having to book to attend classes and may only have been allowed to attend for a limited number of weeks if they were not assessed as seriously in need of the groups.

The sheer volume of families concerned by the potential cuts drove The Argus to launch the Save Our Centres campaign which called on the council to rethink the plans.

Hundreds of parents responded to a council survey and some organised a protest to march on Hove Town Hall when the first council meeting to determine the budget took place on February 26.

It was not until March 3 after hours of gruelling council debate that members voted to stave off the cuts and shield children’s centres until at least 2016.

The news came one month and three days after we launched the campaign and printed scores of articles.

At the time Leah Webb, 37, of Refectory Road, Brighton, chairwoman of the Roundabout Children’s Centre advisory group, said: “If it wasn’t for The Argus campaign and the parents group on Facebook, many families would not have known the services were even at risk.”

Experts working with children’s centres praised the campaign and said the temporary reprieve gave time to look at other ways of funding the vital facilities.

Parents react a month on from success

PARENTS were relieved vital services they branded a “lifeline” were safe from cuts.

Children now play with their friends, safe in the knowledge the centres and facilities are here to stay – for the time being.

Four-year-old Annabelle Woodward’s delight at the news was evident as she cheered outside the Roundabout Children’s Centre in Whitehawk. She celebrated the news with her two-year-old brother Arthur.

Their mother Becca Graves – who volunteers at the centre and attends groups like Jump for Joy and relies on help from health visitors – said she would be lost without the children’s centre groups.

She said: “My children love the groups – they take part in crafts, painting, storytelling, singing, and all sorts of other activities. They are really popular and a great way to be educational and fun for the children. They make so many friends there and it is great to know they are learning at the same time. I meet other parents so I rely on the centre too.

“I’ve found the health visitors have been great – especially with my son who doesn’t eat very well. It is a huge relief the centres and services are safe for now – they are so important.

“I think our concerns got across to councillors a little bit but if they had been completely on board with us they would not have considered the cuts in the first place.”

The 25-year-old, of Maresfield Road in Whitehawk, said the thought of being faced with a similar situation next year was “worrying” and she hoped a plan is put in place to protect them for good before then.

She said: “It was really difficult this time – we could sign petitions, make a noise, and it was good our voices were heard but you did feel a bit helpless.

“It caused quite a worry among all of the parents – everyone was talking about it – and it doesn’t bear thinking about that this could happen again next year.”

While this centre was not one of four at risk of closure, it would have been affected by staff cuts and reduction of groups and services that it operates had the cutbacks gone ahead.

Sheila Bould also uses the centre and has travelled into Brighton once a week for five years to look after her grandchildren.

Each Wednesday the grandmother from Wivelsfield Green goes to groups with three-year-old Archie Hatton, who lives nearby with his five-year-old sister Lilly, who also used to attend when she was younger.

Mrs Bould said: “The centre has great facilities and equipment and the groups are fantastic. I started taking Lilly when she was a baby and as they have grown up I’ve moved through groups with them.

“The fact the groups are free and open to everyone is a big bonus. It has been a really positive experience.

“For me it helps to see modern ways of parenting and I could see how useful the centres were for parents – they had access to specialists and advice.”

Mrs Bould said the atmosphere had changed since parents learned centre cuts would not go ahead, adding: “It was very negative when people thought the centres and services may not be there.

“But now that everything has settled down a little bit everyone is extremely grateful.”

A timeline of Save Our Centres

January 28, 2015 – The Argus launches the Save Our Centres campaign calling on Brighton and Hove City Council to reconsider proposals to cut back children’s centres and services.

January 29, 2015 – The city’s MPs back the Save Our Centres campaign.

January 30, 2015 – Stay-at-home dad Tony Symons, of Portslade, explains how children’s centres were a lifeline as he brought up twins.

January 31, 2015 – Patrick Lowe, chairman of Brighton and Hove Governors’ Association, said closing down children’s centres could have a knock-on effect on children’s development as they start school.

February 2, 2015 – The Argus speaks to staff at the Early Years Project, who run baby groups which could be shut down as part of the proposals. Senior Reporter Flora Thompson learns firsthand from families in Moulsecoomb and Rottingdean how they rely on the sessions held in libraries across the city. People are urged to complete a consultation opened by the council to voice their concerns about the proposals.

February 3, 2015 – During a visit to Hove Sam Gyimah, the minister for childcare, backed The Argus campaign and said councils should not need to impose cuts on children’s centres.

February 4, 2015 – The council receives between 800 and 900 responses to the consultation, hundreds of people sign a petition against cuts and more back The Argus campaign.

February 5, 2015 – Councillors from Green, Labour, Conservative and UKIP parties, as well as independent members, all say they do not agree with cuts to children’s centres and offer their alternative ways of funding services.

February 6, 2015 – Grandparents whose families will be affected by cuts back The Argus campaign. Some said they would have benefited from children’s centres when growing up.

February 9, 2015 – A teacher, who backed The Argus campaign and is a member of the Campaign for Education, said babies and toddlers who are denied access to children’s centres could be more likely to break the law when they grow up.

February 10, 2015 – Readers of The Argus come forward with their ideas on how the council could avoid cuts to children’s centre services.

February 11, 2015 – An Argus investigation reveals the council is sitting on £30 million of reserves which could be used to fund services.

February 16, 2015 – A family said denying mothers the chance to regularly attend baby and toddler groups offered at children’s centres would cause untold problems.

February 17, 2015 – A middle class mother said cutbacks and restrictions on who could enter baby groups would create a “class divide.”

February 19, 2015 – Less than a month after The Argus launched the campaign, the council backpedals on some plans, announcing it would protect two children’s centres from closures.

February 21, 2015 – Charity 4Children produce a report which said children’s centres are a necessary investment which should be shielded from cuts.

February 24, 2015 – Council chiefs defend their decision not to save more children’s centres from cuts. Officers said the council still needed to make “significant” savings.

February 25, 2015 – It is revealed baby groups could be saved from council budget cuts as more children’s centre proposals are retracted.

February 26, 2015 – A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Conception to Age Two said children’s centres should be a central source of support for families. GMB union branch secretary Mark Turner said children’s centres and other frontline services should never have been put at risk, branding it “naive politics”. The Argus reiterated its calls on councillors to save children’s centres as they entered a meeting to set the budget and joined a protest organised by the Brighton Children’s Centre Campaign alongside more than 100 worried families as it marched through the streets of Brighton and Hove to gather outside the meeting.

February 27, 2015 – The Argus reports how Brighton and Hove City Council is at a stalemate on setting a budget and adjourns the meeting after six hours but the majority of councillors dismissed a proposal to save children’s centres outright. There is still hope for children’s centres to be protected if councillors could reach an agreement when the meeting reconvenes on March 3. Protestors tell The Argus how they feel like the council has “dangled a carrot” only to take it away.

March 3, 2015 – Families wait on tenterhooks to hear if children’s centres will be protected – with Labour group leader Warren Morgan saying it was still his intention to try and save them. Parents brand the council’s behaviour as “despicable” after at least half of respondents to the authority’s consultation on the plans voiced “strong opposition” against them. A former childminder who used children’s centres across the city for more than six years backs The Argus campaign.

Within half an hour councillors vote for a 1.99% council tax increase with an amendment to protect children’s centres and related services for another year.