Durham County Council’s Cabinet will discuss 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.
Proposals for the future of County Durham’s children’s centres will be decided on Wednesday 18th March and, if given the go ahead, plans could see the emphasis shift from specialist buildings to community venues, in a drive to reach families which most need support.
A consultation on proposals has already taken place and all comments and submissions will be 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.”
If plans are given the go-ahead 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 Jubilee Fields Community Centre, Shildon Library, Shildon Methodist Church, St John’s Church, Sunnydale Leisure Centre and the Civic Hall, 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.
It is proposed to retain one Children’s Centre building in each cluster, (with the exception of the Coundon cluster) thereby reducing the number of centres from 43 to 15.
The proposals would 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 ‘Newton Aycliffe Cluster’, Newton Aycliffe Children’s Centre has been identified as the centre which will be retained, meaning services at Shildon Children’s Centre on Byerley Road will be transferred to an alternative provider.
Under the new proposals, Durham County Council expect to save around £1 million.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
