Luton children's centres used by nearly 7,500 families in one year - as councillor admits need for savings 'makes me sick'

On Monday, the closure of multiple children's centres in the town was confirmed, as part of the emergency budget passed last July.

Four of the council's children’s services - Flying Start children’s centres, Early Help, Fresh Start and Manor Contact Centre - are due to be combined into one "integrated family resource service".

"When I speak about the need for savings and I talk about children, it makes me sick," said Luton Labour borough councillor Rob Roche.

"As for the alternative, there isn't any," he told the council's scrutiny children's services review group.

Describing it as "a sad day", he added: "No local politician would want to make any changes to our young children.

"From our viewpoint, we need to scrutinise this and make sure it works."

The local authority's executive has approved a package of cuts as part of its emergency budget savings, which includes the closure of multiple children's day centres.

A report updating progress on a reorganisation programme within children's services was previously presented to the review group by the council's service director quality and improvement Damian Elcock.

Four of the council's non-statutory children’s services, Flying Start children’s centres, Early Help, Fresh Start and Manor Contact Centre are due to be combined into one integrated family resource service, he said.

"We're reprioritising our remaining services to support the most vulnerable children, young people and families in Luton.

"One of aims was this proposal around an integrated family partnership service and we were asked to pursue that through to consultation.

"The two hub sites would be the Leagrave Children's Centre, with another venue in that area, and the Manor Contact Centre, with the satellite sites of London Road Resource Centre and Beech Hill Children's Centre.

"There are a significant number of services we currently offer that we can no longer deliver because of the changes in staffing resource and venues."

Between April 2019 and March 2020, 16,100 children attended an activity with Flying Start Children’s Centres locally, with just under 7,500 attending families, he added.

"I don't disagree that it's a substantial number. Our children's centres have been well used."

The new partnership service will have 85 posts, which will be agile and reflect on the need in the communities, according to service director children’s operations Allison Parkinson.

"We've got the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) service doing well," she said.

"It's about how we can create that overall front door, so that families can tell their story once and don't have to lots of times.

"We'll always provide a service to those children that are clearly in need and are requiring help or protection."

She referred to four levels of service operating in the past:

> Level one universal services anyone can access including GPs, schools and hospitals;

> Level two a more targeted resource, such as an education welfare officer;

> Level three children can come into with more enduring needs than level two that you would see in normal development, such as substance misuse or possibly domestic violence in the home;

> Level four is the statutory service where a child is in need, or in need of protection.

"We're moving away from talking about levels one, two, three and four because it confuses people," she explained.

"Part of the work is our effective support document to give a better explanation of what support we need to provide to children at the right time.

"We have a strong early help service. This will be allowing more families to access those services."

She suggested a review "six months from the beginning of the service, which comes live in April".