AIBU that the Tories were mad to close sure start centres?

[Tristar15]

Has anyone else seen the report today about the impact of Sure Start Centres? It’s great that they had such an impact but why did the Tories close them? Did they just want something that had been a success under Labour gone?
Labour haven’t committed to reopening them by the way but there is currently nothing plugging the gap and it will be years until the impact of what the Tories say replaced them will be seen (not that I’m expecting this to have anywhere near the impact Sure Start had).

That’s interesting, can you listen the boroughs please?

Yes there's one near ms too they just call it a children's centre now and it also does baby and toddler groups and stay and play

The Tories scrapped them because of ideology. It was all part of the unnecessary austerity measures.

I used to work in deprived areas with families. Before Sure Start we had a budget to help struggling families. One scheme I was involved with worked extremely well. If a family was struggling to cope with a child, I could arrange for the child to be collected for the day and placed with a foster family. The child would receive love, attention, access to decent toys, days out and good food. This provision was axed to pay for Sure Start. Unfortunately, the families that really need interventions aren’t the ones who use SS.

@Whenwillitgetwarm

It is true . I worked in children's centres for many years. But each town/city is different. So the affluent areas of Barnsley for example might still be less affluent than a middle tier areas of Oxford. But yes there should be more children centres in deprived areas than anywhere else. As they are now funded by local authorities budgets do come into it too. So some may not have been viable. But that was the plan for closures.

Were they mad?

Absolutely not, but they don't want the plebs getting above themselves and the best way to keep people in place is to close services.

Waltham Forest has them, under various names.

😂

Some of them were kept open by local authorities, which considered them so important that they felt they had to find the money.

The tories of course didn't give a damn about disadvantaged people.

Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and then around High Wycombe.
Ealing also has 'early start' which is a variety of different professionals working with families who are struggling, mainly in their own homes

One major point was early intervention. Nip things in the bud, build confidence and stop things escalating.
If I went to stay n play, baby played, I talked, confided, felt better. It also was about peer support, so you had the professionals floating around but providing a warm space for people to gather without a strict fee structure really helped.

Remember the early days, when getting dressed and out the house could be like wading through treacle, informal, low cost participation was key to their success for everyone. Missing half a free session, you might still make the effort. Put a financial barrier there and you are never going to sign up for 12sessions of expensive classes if you haven't managed to shower for 48hours.

My friend actually joined the labour party and became a councilor because of the scum that are the Tories closing sure starts!

they should have never shut our local one- it was such a shame. They had a dedicated centre where they did loads of classes on first aid, nutrition, potty training etc, lots of outreach and they had a lovely sensory room that was really week used by children with additional needs. The staff were longstanding and well known in the community and then it just shut alongside the health visiting provision. Between my first and second child it became impossible to get a baby weighed or just pop in for a chat. I’m sure there were lots of benefits in terms of saving costs to other public services that were just never really thought about.

And wasn't it great that people from different socio-economic classes were able to mix? They helped people meet others from all walks of life who they might not otherwise have encountered. They helped broaden horizons and increase aspiration. This is supposed to be the very principle of Conservatism. Not any more. They want people to stay where they are.

I worked with Sure Start centres as a social worker for many years when they were started. Unfortunately my experience was that the centres in our areas were not used by the hard to reach families that they were designed to target. They were used primarily by families we referred who had children on child protection plans (therefore told to go) or families that the centres weren't really targeted at (those that needed parenting classes, health interventions) I'm sure some centres worked well in some areas. I often popped in to say hi to staff, as I got to know them well, but the centres weren't used as it was hoped they would be. I can't imagine what the whole scheme cost, along with some of the other schemes the govt at the time put in place. I was there when the every child matters agenda came in and we were surrounded by lots of shiny leaflets, info packs, funky t shirts etc but I don't think it really had the far reaching impact it was meant to (particularly in my area) All with good intentions. This is just my first hand experience working with surestart centres in my area and this was over years. Sadly with the world economic crash, and lots of spending, we ran out of money. Sad that the cuts in austerity impacted the way they did.

They did so much good, and were such a lifeline for new mums. One of the worst things about austerity was the closure of these centres.

I have a dd 15 and when she was a baby we could go to one in our area every day of the week if we wanted - there was even one that was open on a Sunday. Lots of different ones in the general area at different times of day, different precise locations, for different age ranges etc

They were brilliant for educating people as well as just being a place for parents to go with little ones.

By the time I had ds 10, they’d been decimated, and there were only a handful running at all in the week. I wasn’t in massive need myself but our area has pockets of real deprivation, or parents with eal etc who could really need it.

The centre i went to was wonderful. I didn’t have any family support and i got huge help with breast feeding - which I would have had to stop otherwise.
Im fairly middle class but there were definitely peoe of all backgrounds there and needing its services

Middle class mums need communities too- more likely to live further from family. Would help schools if children were more school ready.

A few people have asked what the Conservatives were actually thinking when they began cutting the funding to Sure Start.

I was working for a children’s charity at the time and my role meant that I was in-and-around the policy environment/Westminster in 2011/12. Some of the ideas coming from government were:

At that time there was a huge emphasis on looking towards other countries for inspiration. ‘Why did we need all these expensive services if other countries could manage without?’ There was a lot of talk about Free Schools (Sweden) and the excitingly strict Ecoles Maternelles (France). ‘They expect children to be potty-trained, why don’t we just do that here? Let’s start talking about school readiness too as, after all, my daughter was definitely bright and annoyingly ready for school by four and I can’t think why anyone else’s child wouldn’t be.’

A lot of emphasis was placed on the forthcoming heath-visitor expansion programme. I remember the Tory Party conference roaring with delight when this was announced by David Cameron. ‘Give health visitors (ideally starched, matronly no-nonsense types) far more powers to whip these troubled families into shape!’

But at the same time, an absolute loathing for anything involving layers of management, guidance or non-delivery roles. ‘Throw out that detailed guidance, no one needs all that and it’s just lots of constraint on all these exciting new private-sector providers that we are just chafing to get involved - did I mention that my friend from Cambridge has set up a brilliant new company delivering parenting programmes?’

The new hero to fill any gaps (and by that I mean heroine) was to be The Volunteer. I heard the minister for children and families say, with my own ears, that surely baby and toddler groups could just be run by volunteers? This chimed in nicely with The Big Society and would save lots of money. The thinking was probably something like: ‘After all, lots of men have highly educated wives at home with small children getting their ‘free’ hours at nursery (not to mention my mother, retired in her early sixties - what’s that all about?!) this will stop these women from getting bored and they can do their bit for a few years surely before they go back to their proper jobs, as we’re all in it together?’

But the biggest reason of all was wanting to see far less money and power in the hands of local government - always a thorn in the side of Westminster - hence squeezing local authority budgets until they had to begin cutting services.

I knew someone who had met Michael Gove who said that he was very charming, but to beware the charming man.

That sounds about right! Why give money to local government when you could give it to your mates instead!

interesting....

Mad? Purposely and intentionally unkind, seeing Sure Start as a Blairite move into socialist-inspired state control of 'our children'. The miserable swine, one of the worst moves the austerity Tories made and they have continued in the same vein. Poverty and food banks is what replaced Sure Start. Well done Tories. I hope they lose every seat in the GE. And I hope people remember what they've done. Given the least opportunity, they'll do it again.

Don't be under any illusion that Labour care about children's centres (same as sure start centres)
About 4 years ago the Labour run Council in Ealing, West London tried to shut several of them down. Including one which provided targeted support to children with complex disabilities. I asked a member of my antenatal group at the time (who was a Labour MP) if she could please help with the local campaign to keep them open, or if she had any influence with a Labour council, as a labour MP. Her answer was no, she was not going to help.
So both a Labour MP and a Labour Council were happy to close a lifeline for vunerable families.
She lost her seat after that, but is now standing for election in High Wycombe. So I don't hold out much hope for our children's centres!

Your Labour MP should have taken the opportunity to tell you how much money Tory central government had removed from the Council's grant allocation, making cuts imperative. When in your life have you seen councils going bankrupt before? Do you think they spent all the money on gin and fags and closed children's centres for fun? You are very ill-informed.

Bookstart hasn't been scrapped, but it is more targeted. Books (after the first, which I think is delivered by the health visitor) go out through nursery settings and pre schools. There are specific book start book packs for children with SEN, deaf children, etc.

I don't mind this being slimmed down. There was no real point in my babies & toddlers being given free books, our house was & is heaving with them.