If the Conservatives get into power, will I loose my local Children's centre??

[phoenixflower]

There has been much talk among me and my friends have the affects of a tory government. Will my local Children's Centre be shut down?? Some people are saying it will and others are saying it won't!! I have no idea who I am going to vote for and am thinking if I vote Tory then I am just basically ticking a box to say that they can get rid of my Children's Centre. Anyone know anything?

Thanks

I hope not, we really depend on surestart

I originally read their plan was to get rid of them but I heard they may have backtracked on it...

The Tories have said that they will reduce sure-start and focus it on the poorest only. It's hard to say exactly what that will mean in practice because they have only said they will take out £200,000,000 without saying which or where so can't say anything definite about your centre. They have made no commitment to protect children's centres.

i hope they don't some are still being build in our area! really i don't see why they would as so much has already been invested in them

There do have to be substantial cuts but not all cuts are the same. There is a big difference between planned cuts based on knowledge of what works in public services and drastic slash and burn by people who think public sector activity is just waste. The issue is who do you trust to bring down spending in a sustainable way?

Thanks everyone Hoping ours will stay open, fingers crossed. Wonder if there would be any other way to keep it open if tories wanted it shut e.g. public donations, charity etc

happikidz - that's half the problem, don't think I really want any of them - there are holes on all their policies here and there!

MintHumbug and phoenixflower, but they aren't all the same. Sure, no-one is perfect, there are holes in all their policies and there do have to be cuts but it seems to me that the difference between the parties on the issue of cuts comes down to the question of "how much public sector do you think there should be?" The Tories think much less; Labour thinks a bit less. So the cuts under the Tories will be bigger.

They have been very clear that they plan to close at least half of them unfortuately

I was thinking about this this morning and I think that the proposed Tory policies of "helping the very poorest" will actually end up stigmatising people and making some recoil from using services they need, even if they fall into that category - and who said struggling with parenthood was something that was solely the preserve of "the very poorest" anyway?