A number of changes are to be made to children’s centres across Redbridge. The recommendations follow a public consultation with users, staff and other stakeholders, and an ongoing need to reduce spending to plug a £650k gap in council finances. The council will now offer free access to all services at the centres for every family for the first sixth months after a child’s birth, after which a fee of £2 per family per session will apply. And while the council proposes to keep all eight main ‘hub’ centres open, four of the borough’s 13 ‘satellite’ centres with the lowest levels of resident use will close in September, including the Oakdale Road centre in South Woodford, which is only used for two hours per week. This proposal is expected to deliver a £40k saving over a year. Visit swvg.co/ccreport
The future of children’s centre services
