Provision
Families fight for threatened children's centres
Families have launched a campaign to save seven children's centres threatened with closure.
Kimberley Curtis and daughter join protesters at the Treehouse children's centre
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is considering proposals to close seven of its 16 children's centres, as it faces cuts of almost £33m to its budget over the next four years.
Parents say that the closures would hit vulnerable children and parents, as 46 per cent of those who attend the city's children's centres are in the most deprived 10 per cent of the country.
A consultation on the proposals closes on 10 December.
Mel Osborne, chairman of the North Staffordshire branch of the parenting charity NCT, said, 'Stoke-on-Trent's children's centres are a vital lifeline to parents and it would be a disaster for any of them to close. The city council's figures show the centres are helping more than 23,000 people, including many in the city's most deprived areas.
'We cannot let parents and young children take the brunt of the Government cuts. The centres do a fantastic job helping support people suffering from postnatal depression as well as giving valuable advice on breast-feeding and a range of parenting issues.'
Millissa Beydilli, one of the founders of the Save our Children's Centres campaign and a volunteer at Blurton Children's Centre, one of the settings under threat, said, 'I have had a fantastic experience of children's centres and it's heart wrenching to think that they could be taken away. We are also fighting for the staff - we don't want to see them having to fight for their jobs.
'Blurton Children's Centre has given me so much. I struggled for a long time when I first had my son, I had always been very career-orientated and I was not a natural mother. I don't know what I would have done without their help.'
She added, 'At the moment we are building evidence to prove that the children's centres are working and we are bringing all this together. We have also organised a demonstration for 9 December to coincide with the close of the consultation.'
The group has set up a campaign page on Facebook, SOCC Stoke, that at the time of going to press had attracted over 750 members.
