Proposals for the future of County Durham’s children’s centres were given the go-ahead on Wednesday 18th March, meaning that 28 children’s centres in the area will close.
Durham County Council’s Cabinet accepted the plans for a new approach to providing childcare services for the under-fives, which they say is designed to improve the lives of some of the county’s most vulnerable children and their families.
Plans will see the emphasis shift from specialist buildings to community venues, in a drive to reach families which most need support.
A consultation on proposals took place over a three month period last year and all comments and submissions were considered by Cabinet.
Durham County Council say, “The recommendations are designed to ensure the under-fives, particularly in the most deprived areas of the county, are ready for school life. The paper outlines how, despite some successes, the current reliance on children’s centres has failed to deliver the improvements hoped for.”
Services will be taken farther into communities, focussing on the places families already go. It is hoped this will be beneficial to parents who would no longer be expected to travel to specialist venues.
Some of the proposed community venues for service delivery include Auckland Medical Group, Auckland Youth and Community Centre, Four Clocks Centre, Bishop Auckland Town Hall and King James I Academy, although these venues will need to be risk assessed and meet the needs of families.
The Council’s Children’s Centres are currently arranged in five localities.
This is to ensure that all areas have a proportion of Children’s Centres consistent with their levels of deprivation. No change is proposed to these arrangements.
Within the 5 localities, Children’s Centres are grouped into 16 ‘clusters’, with each of the 16 clusters having a “Main” Children’s Centre.
One Children’s Centre building in each cluster, (with the exception of the Coundon cluster, which is currently being integrated with the Bishop Auckland cluster) will be retained, thereby reducing the number of centres from 43 to 15.
The plans will see the council retain these 15 specialist fixed venue Children’s Centres, with the remaining 28 centres either transferring to schools and nurseries or being used for alternative purposes.
Within the ‘Bishop Auckland Cluster’, St Helen Auckland Children’s Centre has been identified as the Centre which will be retained, meaning services at Woodhouse Close Children’s Centre and Coundon Children’s Centre will be transferred to an alternative provider.
Under the new proposals, Durham County Council expect to save around £1 million.
Cllr Ossie Johnson, Cabinet member for children and young people’s services, Durham County Council, said, “We are committed to providing high quality services to support families and their young children to be both healthy and ready for school, so that they can achieve their full potential.
“We recognise that children’s centres play an important part in this and we propose to change the way we work to target support to children and families who need it most.”
Cllr Lucy Hovvels said, “It’s about improving services and it’s important that the community understands that this is a transformation – the service is not disappearing.
“We should not be frightened to transform our services and do things differently if we are going to get a better outcome.”
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
