Further Children's Centres in Swindon are set to close next year as the Conservative administration on Swindon Council proposes to close children’s centres located at Parks, Pinehurst, Gorse Hill, Moredon and Drove.
Further Children's Centres in Swindon are set to close next year as the Conservative administration on Swindon Council proposes to close children’s centres located at Parks, Pinehurst, Gorse Hill, Moredon and Drove.
During the last round of Children Centre closures, the Conservative administration had said these centres would be protected but now have broken their promise on the issue.
The Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Jim Grant, said: “This proposal is, in effect, the council shutting its doors to vulnerable young people in Swindon and any talk about the Conservatives being compassionate would end with this decision. The administration have broken previous promises about keeping these children centres open and are now saying Children Centres are ineffective after having previously praised the work of children centres.
From a purely financial perspective I think this decision is terribly short-sighted. Evidence has proven that Children’s Centres can prevent young families from reaching a crisis point which is when vulnerable families are most expensive to local authorities. So if the Council fails to support families who might fall in to crisis then it can ultimately be very costly for the local authority.
What will particularly infuriate families is that while they are cutting back on these vital services, this administration is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on 4G Broadband in the Northern Sector which nobody wants and the local MP has rejected”