A win in saving local services is a rare thing, so I am delighted to report that the combined efforts of local parents and carers, staff at Purley Oaks Children's Centre and the children of Purley Oaks Primary School, have managed to save the Best Start Children's Centre off Brighton Road from being closed as part of the Labour Council’s cost cutting.
Earlier this year, the Council proposed to cut the Best Start budget by £1 million (46% of the total) as part of their plans to plug the financial hole that they had created. This would involve reducing the number of sites that provide a provision from 22 to just 9. We already knew that these children’s centres were providing an amazing service but were tremendously oversubscribed so what we needed to serve Croydon’s young families was to expand the service, not to drastically cut it.
My greatest concern was that the centre at Purley Oaks would no longer be available and the Sanderstead Access Point, within Atwood School, would be closed meaning that a whole swathe of the south of the Borough would have no provision. I was also concerned about the closure of the centre at Shirley as this serves the Shrublands estate, an area that the Council’s own data shows as being amongst the most deprived in Croydon and had been in the news recently in relation to the stabbing of a teenager.
I was able to spend the day at the Purley Oaks site – speaking with the amazing staff, parents and carers who had very often seen the facility as a lifeline of support. I also met the Year 5s at the primary school - the best time I had all month! The children, many of whom had visited the children’s centre themselves as babies and toddlers, could see the unfairness of the centre closing – not just because they could see its value but that the proposed closure came as their local libraries were threatened and Purley Pool is destined to never be reopened by Croydon Council; how could it be fair that the services in one part of the Borough were disappearing before their eyes – didn’t they deserve access to the same facilities that children elsewhere in the Borough were able to access? I was delighted that each of the 90 children wrote a letter to detail their concerns which 6 of them hand-delivered to the Council that week; unfortunately, neither the Council Leader nor Cabinet Member for Children came out to receive the letters in person. After speaking with so many local people, I was able to submit my own 3,000 word objection to the plans - which is attached to this blog.
When the decision paper was finally published for consideration at Cabinet, I was surprised but delighted that both of the children's centres at Purley Oaks and Shirley had been saved. It is rare for consultations to result in a change of mind but it is difficult to ignore 1,365 survey responses and 90 letters from school children – well done everyone who put pen to paper or went online to have their say - obviously some strong arguments were made.
However, I would sound a note of caution. What we have left is a much reduced service. Those who watched Monday’s Cabinet meeting would be excused for thinking that the Labour Cabinet had saved Croydon’s Best Start service from an external threat. What has actually happened is that Labour bust the Council’s budget and therefore there are still a lot of cuts to the service still to go. The use of 11 buildings (out of 22) has been saved but there will be less staff and less sessions available. Parents and carers had already told me that they struggled to get a place at the sessions being provided, and there will be even less available going forward. Ultimately less people will benefit and some families, who need time to build up trusting relationships with staff, will be missed. However, we have secured some service in our local area.
Congratulations to all those who worked so hard to save our local services. It was great to see that so many people were prepared to participate in the consultation to cause of change of mind - and that we saved the children's centres at Purley Oaks and Shirley.
