Issue - meetings

An electronic and paper petition has been received regarding reductions in opening hours and the range of services provided at Children’s Centres across Bath and North East Somerset, calling on the Council not to go ahead with these proposals.  There are 880 signatures on the paper petition, 231 on the online one.  According to the Council’s petition scheme, if a petition with over 1000 signatures of people who live, work and study in Bath & North East Somerset is received and meets the criteria, it triggers a debate at Council.

The Council had received a petition with sufficient signatures to trigger a debate at Council.  The title of the petition reads - “B&NES Council are planning to cut almost 40% from the Children’s Services budget over the next two years, forcing drastic reductions in opening hours and the range of services at Children’s Centres across Bath and North East Somerset.  We, the undersigned, call on B&NES to protect our Children’s Centres, and not to go ahead with its planned 38% cut to Children’s Services”.

Vicky Drew, lead petitioner, spoke in support of the petition. 

On a motion from Councillor Liz Hardman (seconded by Councillor John Bull) and then amended by Councillor Michael Evans, seconded by Councillor Geoff Ward, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously) as set out below;

This Council:

·  Thanks the organisers of the petition for bringing this matter to the attention of the Council;

·  Welcomes the opportunity to debate the future of Children’s Centres with the proposed cuts of 38.8% to Children’s Centres services;

·  Notes that a commitment has been made to publish detailed information regarding the proposed model for the future delivery of Children’s Centre services but regrets that this detailed information will not be available until February 2014;

·  Notes that the Cabinet has stated its intention to allocate an additional £500,000 to the Early Years & Children’s Centres budget, thereby reducing the planned budget cut from £2.3m to £1.8m (38.8% to 30.4%);

·  Remains concerned that the scale of the proposed budget cuts will still have a significant impact on the Children’s Centre services available to some communities with a significant number of vulnerable residents, such as Odd Down, Peasedown, Paulton, Midsomer Norton and Weston village, and in areas of rural isolation such as the Chew Valley;

·  Is concerned that the number and locations of the ‘hub’ Children’s Centres, as currently being considered by the Cabinet, will result in a significantly downgraded service at the proposed non-hub Children’s Centre locations

This Council resolves:

1.  That subject to Council approval of the 2014 -15 budget in February, the additional £500,000 proposed by the Cabinet for the Children’s Centres and Early Years budget become an on-going part of the base budget and that, in the event of the hub model being implemented, the majority of this additional funding be directed at supporting and protecting as much as possible the services available in the ‘non-hub’ centre areas, and particular to vulnerable families recognising that final allocations are determined using a needs-led formula.

2.  To ask that Cabinet reassess the currently proposed number and location of its planned ‘hub’ Children’s Centres to ensure that, if the ‘hub’ model is adopted, the ‘hub’ centres are situated in the most suitable locations so that the maximum possible Children’s Centre services can continue in all communities currently served by Children’s Centres.

3.  To ask that the Cabinet, as part of their forthcoming budget proposals, seeks to find further additional resources to further reduce the scale of cuts to Children’s Centres and Early Years  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57