A MONTH ago, Brighton and Hove City Council said it would need to make £800,000 of cuts to its children’s centres, potentially leading to a loss of four sites and the stripping back of services. However, local authority bosses have now said a hike in council tax could save the facilities. Flora Thompson reports.

FINANCIAL pressures “forced” council officers to recommend cutbacks which would impact thousands of parents and children, it has been claimed.

However, Brighton and Hove City Council’s Green administration has said a near 6% hike in council tax could save the services, as well as others in line for cutbacks.

Green councillor Ollie Sykes said more financial pressures and central government cuts had forced officers to plan for the worst-case scenario.

As a result, they issued plans to cut the 12 main children’s centres to eight this year, reduce the 2015/16 budget by £779,000, and hack a swathe of other services including staff, groups and home visits.

The plan includes the merging of City View Children’s Centre in Elm Grove and Cornerstone Children’s Centre in Church Road with Tarner Children’s Centre in Ivory Place.

Officers want to combine the Hollingbury and Patcham site in County Oak Avenue with the Hollingdean centre in Brentwood Road, and West Hove in Portland Road with Conway Court in Clarendon Road.

Groups in Moulsecoomb, Whitehawk, Coldean, Woodingdean and Rottingdean libraries and Meadowview Community Centre would also be axed as part of the plans.

Warren Morgan, leader of the council’s Labour group, said: “Children’s centres are one of Labour’s proudest achievements in government.

“The Roundabout Children’s Centre in Whitehawk in my ward, rated outstanding by Ofsted, is an example of the fantastic work they do.”

He blamed Prime Minister David Cameron for pledging to protect them, but instead cutting them.

He said: “Children’s centres should, alongside our libraries, form community hubs offering early intervention outreach services to families.

“We don’t oppose services being redesigned and co-operative parent-led options ought to be looked at, but we do oppose them being reduced.”

Nobody from the Conservative group responded to our request for a comment.

If the plans are adopted, thousands of parents and children could be affected.

In the first three months of 2014, there were 11,549 children under the age of five attending centres across Brighton and Hove and 3,705 parents or careers.

Total attendance recorded at City View was 554. There were 353 at Cornerstone, 288 at Hollingbury and Patcham and 403 at the West Hove centre.

Early-years visitors, receptionists and service support managers are all under consultation and the equivalent of 11.5 full-time posts could be axed.

Funding to voluntary groups the Early Childhood Project and the Brighton Unemployed Centre could also be halved.

Elsewhere, the City View and Cornerstone advisory groups could merge into one at the Tarner centre, and the Hollingbury and Patcham group could be combined with the one at Hollingdean.

The current 30 baby and toddler Stay and Play groups across the city could be slashed to 20. Drop-in baby and toddler groups, which are open to everyone, could be time limited with appointments introduced.

Parents with babies would only be able to attend an eight-week course and children under two may only be able to attend for a term.

Home visits will be cut back by a third and parents will be encouraged to travel to a centre for a check-up instead.

Funding for childcare places at playgroups and nurseries could be reduced by £80,000, but the council said the government has increased funding for free part-time childcare for two-year-olds for families on benefits and low incomes.

Overcrowding

DESPITE concerns parents have raised about overcrowding and extended waiting times if the sites were merged, the council said no more resources would be put into remaining centres such as Tarner.

A council spokesman said the new booking system would give reserved places for families who needed most help.

He added that the council would still support families with the “highest level of need” with funding focused on children under the age of two.

The spokesman said there were no plans to sell the buildings and health services may continue at all the centres.

He added: “The proposals should be seen in the context of rising costs and the council losing around £100 million of government funding over the next four years.

“They are part of a drive to focus council resources on services that will deliver the best outcomes for those families who need most help.”

Edward Crask, a former board member of a children’s centre in London, said he was “disturbed” to learn centres could close.

Mr Crask, of Suffolk Street, Hove, said: “For the first time, children from poor backgrounds got the intervention at a pre-school age that put them in a better position for when they went to school.”

Brighton and Hove Parents and Children Group organises educational activities and outings for unemployed families and their children.

Robert Bryan, group co-ordinator, said: “These harmful cuts we are seeing across Brighton and Hove all seem to affect services that are particularly needed by the most vulnerable children and families.

“These cuts to important services, taken with all the other measures taken by the government, are causing stress and genuine hardship, and local authorities need to stand up for the most vulnerable in society.”

Katherine Atkinson, of the Kids in Brighton website, said the position was a result of government cutbacks. She said: “Children’s centres are vital. They are a place for people to meet so they don’t feel isolated.

“Cutting them will be detrimental to the development of children and their wellbeing.”

Last year, the council considered introducing charges for children’s services but dropped the plan after a backlash from parents.

The budget will be agreed at a meeting on February 26.

To read the report and submit views by March 2, visit theargus.co.uk

What parents think

THE Argus spoke to parents who use the services. Many were angry at the plans, claiming it would have a dire effect on their children.

Chelsea Robinson, 23, of Carden Avenue, lives two minutes from the Hollingbury and Patcham children’s centre, where she takes her three-year-old daughter Brooke and one-year-old Isabelle.

She said: “It’s so handy as it’s right outside my back door. There aren’t many groups so it’s worrying to hear they could be cut back.

“They have already stopped giving one-year checks for children, which I was given with my eldest but not my second child.

“We love going to the centre. They put on extra events like Christmas parties which are good fun and the staff are brilliant and you can tell they love their jobs.

“It’s great to know my health visitor is there. I suffered from post natal depression with my first-born and received support with her behaviour.

“It would be a big problem if we had to travel further. I would have to take two buses and it would take at least an hour.”

Chef Sian Messer, 32, has a three-year-old son and a seven-month-old daughter. She lives near the Bevendean Children’s Centre in Heath Hill Avenue and the Moulsecoomb Children’s Centre in Hodshrove Lane.

She attends playgroups with her children and meets a health visitor. She said the centres were a lifeline.

She said: “I have no family here so it was a brilliant way to meet people who live nearby and that contact could be lost. I worked long hours and I didn’t have anybody to help me. It really changed my life.”

Leah Webb has been chairwoman of the parents’ advisory group at the Roundabout Children’s Centre in Whitehawk Road for 18 months.

The 37-year-old, of Refectory Road, Brighton, volunteers and, as a parent, also visits the centre with her four-year-old daughter.

She fears those not classed as the most deprived will be cast aside and left to fend for themselves.

She said: “I’ve been using the services since Jasmine was three months. I didn’t know I had post natal depression until nine months after she was born.

“The reason I was diagnosed at all was because centre staff and members of a baby group recognised the symptoms. These cutbacks could put people at risk.”

She is urging people to voice their concerns so she can raise them at the group’s next meeting.

Alice Bloomfield is a disabled mother of a two-year-old child. The 40-year-old, who lives in the Kemp Town area and has rheumatoid arthritis causing her mobility problems, said: “This seriously concerns me.

“I already have limited access to children’s services and to any kind of activity for my child, due to my disability.

“I rely on an early years visitor from the Tarner centre to come once a week just to help me take my little boy to the park.

“This is the only help I get in a practical sense. If this service is cut, my toddler faces even more isolation.”

Brighton mother Gemma Trilochun set up Save the Play, a campaign group to save children’s services on Facebook.

The group is circulating a petition to save the Playbus and is also discussing the impact of the cuts.

To join the group, visit facebook.com and search Save The Play.

Fears over potential cuts to the Playbus

PARENTS fear the potential cuts to children’s centre services could mean the loss of the popular Playbus, which tours the city.

The vehicle provides inside and outside play areas all year round with trained play workers. Scooters, bikes and other sports equipment, games, books, craft materials and costumes are all available.

A council spokesman said: “We have not taken any decision to stop our Playbus service. We are currently looking at how best to provide our play service – which includes the Playbus.”