Sure start Children's Centres - do you use them and what do you think of them?

[carriemumsnet]

BBC Radio London have invited us on tomorrow (Friday am) to talk about what Mumsnetters think of Sure Start children's centres. It's a while since anyone an MNHQ used one so we'd be really interested to know what y'all think.

All feedback welcome.

Thanks

MNHQ

i often link 2 parents up, drawing on each others strengths, so many of them could be so good for each other. All our parents never fail to amaze me on how strong and talented they are as parents, but someone need to help them fill a few holes they havent mastered yet. Can you tell i love my job? lol

Hi,

How did the interview go?

Surestart are fab in my area!

Treedelivery it depends on the nature of the group. I ran traditional playgroups where everyone from the local area could come.

But I also ran groups which were much smaller and the purpose was to focus on certain areas and therefore if I knew some mums would not come because they would feel intimidated I would have made it invite only. In some of my groups my funding was conditional on me achieving certain targets or working with certain families it would not be appropriate for that money to be spent ferrying affluent parents about on subsidised trips.

This is going back 5 years or so though when there were fewer childrens centres and they were built in areas of deprivation.

twinsetandpearls - hopefully no matter where the centres are built they will be able to provide the targeted health promotion and encourage engagement, like the groups you were running. A vital step towards improving the experiences of children in this country.

And certainly resources must be wisely used. I for one would have been happy to pay for all the things I used, even if others paid less/more/nothing. It seems only fair.

I often ran groups for parents who would just never attend a playgroup, their children would probably never go to nursery and their lack of social skills would mean they would struggle at school. So my groups tended to have a maximum of ten families, any more and parents would not turn up, hence they were invite only.

Twinset...I know it's simply your opinion, but I do feel perhaps that is a rather sweeping statement (about children who never go to playgroups doing badly at school)

I never took ds1 to playgroups (Ok, we went twice and gave up!) and he managed preschool for maybe 8 weeks total, under much duress - ie crying for half an hour after I left, etc. (not pleasant and done under strong pressure from my entire family, friends etc despite my thinking it was wrong)

I was terrified about him starting school, however he waltzed in without any issues social or otherwise. The only problem he had was tiredness.

Plus he has very good social skills!

i used lisad123 ss centre sometimes. dd3 goes to nursery on the same site as did dd2. its very well run. i prefer the baby group atm to the toddlers groups as obviously dd4 is still little. i take the older dd's to some of the holiday sessions, and they have been very good. i keep meaning to check out the toy library as well, i had a small peek and it looks well stocked.

its a good mix of parents at the one lisa runs, and she does do it very well (i know she isnt completely in charge) , but i watch lisa at work and you can see parents relax with her and have a chat easily, wheras with the other person they clam up.

as dd4 gets older, i can see myself using the cc more, as she will be my only baby at home, as dd3 starts school in sept.

thanks misdee

International I did not mean that any child who never goes to playgroup would do badly at school these were children who for a variety of reasons would dp badly at school. Nehaviour issues, neglect, parents who could not read or write, substance abuse in the home..... One of the ways we tried to tackle this was to provide a playgroup setting where other services could be accessed.

If a child has never ever been in a setting where they have had to follow certain rules, negotiate with friends, look at a book,eat at a table etc they are more likely to find school difficult. Lots of us do this at home.

Thanks for clarifying, Twinset. Sounds like a very useful service you were providing.

Not read the whole thread but I love our Surestart CC. They run great courses and groups and provide a social life too. Now that DS has started school, I already know a lot of the mums from the CC. I've just become a childminder, so use it even more now. We considered moving house but wont untill the DC have outgrown the CC.

My local ones are fantastic! One os attached to a school and been there a while, the other is in a church and just opened. I didn't go to the church one for a while as i thought it was an evangelist thing like sunday school but then a midwife tld me it was council like the other one.

greaat for baby groups and bf support, lovely toys and facilities. I know lots of local mums and so far we've met in cafes mostly but as our babies start wanting to run about I think the toddler sessions will become invaluable.

would be good if they were publicised better as until A was 3 months old I had no idea there were 3 in walking distance of my house! HVs never mentioned them. There should be a leaflet given to you at antenatal appt or birth. Also the sessions are a bit unpredictable as funding is only for a few weeks at a time, and some say you have to book but actually you don't. as public services go they seem better run on a shoestring than most!

I love using the sure start facilities.

I go to some fantastic baby and play groups which are so well planned with activities you may not think (or dare) do at home.

I will soon be having someone from the centre coming to risk assess my home and fit all safety equipment e.g. stair gates/ plug sockets now my ds is mobile. All for a fixed fee too, so will be cheaper than going out and buying these myself.

In addition I have recieved free acupuncture as a new mum - while they looked after ds. It was heaven!

I highly recommend sure start centre

Theres one where we live. But as the only thing that they have done at the weekend was a fathers group - which was lovely, but they did soccer training, which isn't available for under 5's at the weekend either. And it was only done the once, even though loads of dads turned up

They also don't advertise themselves very well - the noticeboard is within the grounds of the school it is in, but not situated so that you can read it from outside, and they don't have a website.

what'a a childrens centre? None where I live, although its a small town that is more deprived than many around here that do have them. Therefore I think they aren't reaching the people who most need them.

Have just noticed a previous comment that all areas are supposed to have them by 2010. No plans at all for one here - the nearest one is 15 minutes drive but there are low levels of car ownership here. Maybe one day someone in central government will insist they send a van once a week.

There are 3 in walking distance of where I live.

They are FAB! I also know of several in the nearest large town which I sometimes go to.

They all offer a wide range of activities and groups - bfing groups, teenage mum groups, AN Bump Clubs, Dad's clubs, Stay and Plays for all ages from 0-5. Some of the groups (such as the stay and plays) don't run during the school holidays, instead they run different activities to help include school age children.

They have been doing a lot of work promoting breastfeeding as the town I live in has very low rates of bfing compared to the large town nearby. They are also big on supporting mums with nursing toddlers.

They also run courses on a wide range of subject such as health & hygiene, parenting skills, childminder courses, help with job hunting, and even a weight management programme.

Personally I think they are fantastic and feel very lucky to live in an area that is so well supported by Surestart - it's just a pity it isn't like this everywhere!

Ours is lovely but crap at promoting itself.

I attended one excruciating 'Babies into Books' course where a lass in her very early 20s solemnly extolled the virtues of reading with one's child to a group consisting of 3 teachers, a lawyer & a librarian...it was fun actually, drinking tea & making pop up books & glove puppets, but tbh I doubt it in any way increased the amount of reading being done with babies & todlers!

Similarly with the healthy eating class - fruit kebabs, nom nom nom, but half a dozen of us there, all Guardianista types who probably knew their way round a mango already.

Come the day trip to an amusement park, though, families descended from far & wide & filled 3 buses.

So overall - lovely resource, but doesn't seem to actually be reaching the parents who are supposed to need it.

There is only one vaguely in this neck of the woods, and it is about 6-7 miles away with no realistic public transport option. It doesn't seem to lay much on compared to the things described on here, from the look of it. However it did poach staff from our local independently run nursery which has now closed as a consequence (and also because parents couldn't afford the fees any longer). So we have a negative provision situation for under-fives in this neighbourhood. 'Nuff said. I suppose there's always CBeebies for us yokels in the villages.

I missed this thread earlier and the programme, but hope that some people were encouraged to look in and see what Surestart/Children's Centres near them were up to by the programme.

I think Surestart/Children's Centres are a great idea. I understand the point about reaching a wider range of families, and encouraging particular groups to come. Some of the centres near me seem to do that better than others.

I'm middle class by background in a reasonably paid but not professional job, and live in an area of London which is seen as deprived with a high crime rate etc. But there are clearly quite a lot of middle class families here too, and there is a more middle class area nearby. I learned about one of my favourite local groups just round the corner from people who lived in the posher bit.

There's a new one at a school round the corner from me, and I've been impressed by the friendliness that I've been greeted with - the teacher (I think) who runs the group seems to be really keen to help new people settle in. It seems to be attracting a more varied and perhaps more representative group of mums - the baby group is on at the same time as another I'm more likely to go to, and Wednesday afternoons when I do go the space is more taken up by toddlers, but I plan to go again when I'm not doing something else on a Wednesday.

I was quite surprised by a woman who teaches (and is one of the founders of) a postnatal exercise class which seems very yummy mummy oriented the other day - she was advising others on the course of the benefits of the children's centre nurseries over the private ones in terms of staff training, quality etc - I totally agree with her.

I had my first baby at a point when Surestart funding for a lot of projects had come to an end and the new centres now opening had yet to be set up and open to us. There seems to be much more on now than there was with ds1, but I've really valued and appreciated the services offered with both babies. I don't know what I would have done without some of the groups and the paid workers funded through Surestart when I was in the grip of postnatal depression with ds1. I think they offer a lot to women (and families) who may not be from a terribly deprived background but really need some help and support, but that might be about drinking tea with other mums and babies rather than being monitored and judged at home/in hospital.

I really hope that if we do end up with a Tory government they will pull back from proposals to cut Surestart and replace it with something like (one plan they were proposing) home visits from maternity nurses.

No an intrusive organisation which often misleads or provides the wrong advice. IT should really be more specialist and focussed at depravation. I know good web sites and book from bad and good old intuition so I don't need them. Anything medical is GP based and if I ever need anything specialist my GP would reefer us to the proper clinic/specialist. We have no need for joined up service.

Check out the facebook campaign on SureStart

www.saveoursurestart.com

Seems to be different views on whether to keep expanding them (Labour) or whether to cut them back to just the poorest families (Dave Cameron)

the sure start centre where I used to live was fab, baby weighing, midwife, even a counsellor, plus lots and lots of baby groups all under one roof, lots of sofas books and toys in waiting room for toddlers

was also a private nursery in other room, secure doors etc and lovely friendly reception people, they did huge summer fetes and hired bouncy castles massive platters of fresh fruit etc all totally free,
stories activities, etc ect all a godsend.

Now we've moved theyve just set a surestart centre up within my local primary school, its rubbish, one small office, no idea about local play groups etc. Feel disappointed, Ive offered them my help and explained and they asked me to give them ideas but that was back in september, not heard since, I havent got time to be chasing them up.

Great system when its all set up properly, less than useless when it isnt.