The appalling state of Children's Centres

Was a massive difference in the 10 years between my sons now 10 and 20 older one had weigh sessions think they were mon weds Fri 1-3pm loads of toddlers groups and baby massage groups, once fortnightly weight in cold village hall covering about 4 different areas not personal not interested really no real advice or help. Had to pay for all classes he attended. It’s probably worse now.

We could also had a play session whilst waiting to be weighed. That was gone by my second. We still have the centres with activities but it is definitely different.

YANBU but budgets were cut for these services years ago. My DD is 16 now and even when she was a baby, weigh-ins were only once a fortnight and the very few sessions they ran had very limited numbers which where booked up weeks in advance.

I’m glad I did NCT as the other new mums I met there were my lifeline. If I’d depended on a local centre I’d have been completely cut off. But meeting other mums was the main reason I did NCT.

We lost a library too. And the main library had it's hours cut.

What Cameron, Osborne and Gove did to communities from 2010 onwards was criminal.

Yes it was there with my 8 and 5 year olds as well.

ive noticed they have cut the sessions shorter as well with my older 3 it was 90-120 mins. Now its around 45-60 mins a group.

Ive Also noticed a lack of pay for groups as well now. I use to find so many church/community run groups for a £2 donation sort of thing. Haven’t been able to find any as of yet. But plenty of paged groups such as baby sensory, baby sign where it’s £8 a session billed termly. 11 years ago I wouldn’t of been able to access anything like that financially so we relied on the free/donation groups

When I had pfb we were in a big city and it was all private church or nursery/pre-schools. It's one of the places now with the new children hubs.

When we moved it there were huge numbers of children centers - and many of the church and nursury/pre-school groups cost more and over our time there started to struggle for numbers mainly due to not being able to go as cheap as children centers.

Children centers were starting to cut back and restrict servcies when youngest was a toddler and had few years of decline before we moved. I was surpsied when I when and checked today that all the children centers we used have closed. I'm most surprised by large one we spent a lot of time at becuase it was the local libary, council nursury and children center all in one. It's now a private nursery. The other side of park the very struggling charity pre-school has managed to hang on and seems to be thriving now.

Younger kids in our family - newphew was born just before lock down and then went into full time nursery and child minder when Sis went back to full time work - so Dsis didn't do groups at all. DH cousins kids slightly older - they did only toddler group once a week in their town then kids were in expensive classes, soft play or childcare or with relatives in their homes - the two mum there did p/t 4 days weeks from around 6 months.

The regional library here have been under threat since we moved her - they've stayed open with volunteers and much reduced hours but they've also stopped rhyme times as well. I think the nearby community center one never came back after covid either. I honestly don't know where local mothers go with young kids TBH though city center does now have have jungle gym cafes.

This may link to greater awareness of allergies etc. Any group where there was food was a no no for my oldest when she was little - even if she didn't eat it, children would spread crumbs all over the room, touch toys before washing their hands etc because they are of course toddlers and not meant to be tidy and clean all the time.

My eight year old you could go the group and then everyone would have snacks even if just fruit and cheese. It was gone by the time my three year old came along.

Yes that's when my DS was born also. But we didn't live in a ahithole so centres weren't for us

Lol at pram pushing distance of one I suppose ( back when there were loads) the breast one would've been a 10 mile round trip which is a long pram push. And I live in a town

My eldest is 11 and we have just had another baby.

our centre still has weekly clinics as we have to weigh our new baby 2 times a week due to issues. So we attended the clinic once a week. Then midwife or hv either visited us or we had to go to midwife clinic the other time.

But group wise. The breast feeding group is appointment only. I remember being able to just drop in and it was more peer support where now it’s feeding support (which we did need to be fair).
there’s 1 group suitable to take baby to currently. And only 1 group a day. I use to be able to go to 2-3 groups a day when I had my first.

groups use to involve snack time for older children. That’s gone now.

Ive Also noticed a lack of pay for groups as well now. I use to find so many church/community run groups for a £2 donation sort of thing. Haven’t been able to find any as of yet. But plenty of paged groups such as baby sensory, baby sign where it’s £8 a session billed termly. 11 years ago I wouldn’t of been able to access anything like that financially so we relied on the free/donation groups

Exactly! Communities need to be empowered to work jointly with government services, people who know the needs of the communities and are invested in them. Our local residents organisation and churches puts on a variety of play and support groups tailored to the villages needs. These are volunteer run and well attended

I took mine to groups at children's centres when they were young and we lived in an outer London borough. Often there were only 2-3 families there, it really wasn't a great use of resources. Staff would ask loads of questions, and at times it felt intrusive to the point that we gradually stopped going Whole centres open for a few groups a week and a few attending each of those groups. At the same time the local libraries sing and story time and church toddler group was very well attended.

We have a Residents Association in our village that runs a weekly session for mums & babies, makes the village hall available for a weekly health visitor morning, runs a toddlers' club and assorted other activities. They are all run without assistance from govt.

We have a youth worker whose salary is paid by a local charity who organises most of them, and a group of volunteers who do all the grant applications & paperwork, manage the village hall and work with the parish council (also all volunteers).

Waiting for govt or the borough council to provide anything is pointless.

Why are you surprised? Tory cuts.

I was lucky as what was left of the sure start centre in my area went on to start a really good baby group in a church hall. The church groups were a brilliant part of those years for me. As someone who doesn't live near family it was very important.

I had my first child at the end of the last labour government the second less tantwo years later.

The difference in services was staggering so many cuts!

I dread to think how it is now.

This is what I ended up doing under Covid. Worked really well & meant I could weight my baby as often as I needed to. Sold them on afterwards too so recouped some of the cost.

As a PP said, I also echo church run baby groups. Several near me are free & provide cake, tea & coffee. No religious content, just the social support aspect.

Services were pretty shite in my area in the Cotswolds when I had my two in the early 2000s. I had zero help with breastfeeding, to the point that I gave up, no local baby groups, getting the baby weighed was a 3 minute dash in and out at the local GP (no chance of chats with anyone) I actually never had my 8 week check up after birth as there were no appointments at all for weeks on end and it was just pointless. I remember being on the phone to try and book one and they just basically said 'oh well, what can we do? There is nothing, you do need a check but we have nothing so 🤷‍♀️'. I also had PND and the health visitor left me a REALLY nasty voicemail as I was 3 minutes late to an appointment....because her office was upstairs and I was stuck in the building elevator. Never heard from her again after that appointment, was left to just cope with PND on my own.
I can't imagine what it's like for new mums now if it's worse than it was. What a shitshow.

It can afford to though. Children lucky enough to have been very young during the Children’s Centres short glory years are not the only children to have thrived.

Nowadays, more parents need to work so use childcare, and if there are concerns about the child’s development, they can be supported by nurseries.

Are you concerned about the lack of weigh ins or mother and baby groups? I wasn’t sure. Personally, I think weigh ins are overrated. I think you can generally do it at home but usually common sense can tell you if baby is growing - they grow out of clothes at the expected rate. I appreciate I’m probably in the minority but never bothered weighing any of my children as babies as I could see they were growing from how heavy they felt and from clothing sizes required.

edit: I didn’t see your follow ups until after I posted. I see you are talking about wider support etc.

I remember the huge reduction in services between DC1 born in 2009 and DC2 in 2012. The difference - two years of Austerity "We're all in it together". Seems things have not improved at all.

The London borough where I work used to have about 15 children's centres with various groups and services. However, the (labour) council cut a few a couple years ago, and now are consulting on closing a few more - if they get their way will be down to about 6. Same for the London borough I live it.

I think it depends where you live, the ones in our area don’t do quite as many groups as they used to but still do a good range for the different ages, excellent quality too, actually better than the private baby sensory classes paid for