Cambridge children's centres under threat of closure

[DorothyParker111]

The County Council is wanting to 'rationalise' provision of children's services. This will lead to the contraction or outright closure of several children's centres, including Romsey Mill, Homerton, Fawcett and Cherry Hinton, ie all the current provision in the south of the city: www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/childrens-centres-cambridgeshire-county-council--13291759

The timing of the consultation seems particularly cynical - July to early September, ie through the school holidays. Children's centres and local councillors will be opposing these cuts. Please respond to the consultation when it goes live; look out for petitions, etc; and spread the word among your friends.

Hi, I am Amanda Taylor, a Lib Dem county councillor in Queen Edith's, living opposite Homerton Children's Centre, where my son had a fantastic educational start.

The timing of the consultation could not be worse for families – the County Council Conservatives will tell you they could not hold the consultation before the elections because of political 'purdah' rules; in reality, they simply did not want these damaging cuts to be known before the elections.

There is a meeting of the County Council's Children & Young People Committee next Tuesday discussing the consultation and I shall be asking for the deadline to be extended until autumn half term.

I would appreciate ideas about the form the survey should take: on line/ paper survey, etc. and what you think are the best ways of publicising it: email/ facebook etc.

Unfortunately following the recent county council elections, the Conservatives have the majority so we may be outvoted – but we will try our best.

The meeting is open to the public and is at 2pm at Shire Hall next Tuesday (11th July). The agenda is on line at cmis.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/ccc_live/Meetings/tabid/70/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/397/Meeting/629/Committee/4/Default.aspx.

It would be good if people on here could spread the word to as many people as possible.

I am hoping to get a petition set up very soon, and we'll probably have a Facebook group for discussing campaigning to defend our children's centres throughout the county.

I have used Chesterton's Children Centre extensively during the first year of my child. It has helped me trough an extremely difficult period when during the first few months after giving birth having somewhere close by to go was paramount. I believe that having a centre within walking distance is enormously important at times when you feel lonely and even leaving the house seems like a huge challenge. Getting to North Cambridge Children's Centre would have required me to take a taxi or a bus into town changing onto another bus and would have seemed to big of a challenge. This is only my story but I am sure that it applies to people all over Cambridge and the Country. Wanting to further reduce the service of children centres makes me incredibly sad and terrified of being on maternity leave again. How cynical is it of the Conservative Government to talk about increasing Mental Health services when they are taking away what is already in place and helping families and especially mothers after giving birth which can be mentally very difficult. Thanks Amanda for your initiative and I would love to join a campaign.

Just to say we have a petition going to try to halt this. The proposed closures are massive right across Cambridgeshire, and will leave huge swathes of the Cambridgeshire countryside with no children's centre for miles and miles. Please sigh our petition against these closures at:
www.cambridgelibdems.org.uk/campaigns
Children's Centres provide really important services for many parents, and these closures don't need to happen. It would cost around 10p a week on council tax to keep them open!