Pic: Kenji Punzalan

Children’s centres across the borough face considerable changes so the council can make £1.1m in savings from the current budget. These cuts will be decided after a range of public consultations taking this month.

The current cost of the service is £4.6million. However, the budget that has been set needs to see this figure reduced to £3.5million to make the required savings.

The cuts could mean that some centres are merged, leaving one team to deliver services across two or more sites. The council has also said that they are considering closing centres that are judged to be of “less need”.

At the consultations, parents, carers, staff, partners, stakeholders and governors of the centres have been given the opportunity to tell the council their views on the proposed changes.

Councillor Tim Pollard, Cabinet Member for children, young people and learners, said: “These centres offer an important service to the families of young children in the borough. However in these challenging financial times we have to ensure that our resources are focused on those people who most need our help and support.”

At present there are 26 children’s centres in Croydon. where services such as families support, help, advice and carers activities are provided for the borough’s 27,000 under-fives.

On January 25, Woodside Children’s centre held a consultation day where families, volunteers and individuals had chance to share their thoughts on the future of the centre. EastLondonLines went along to find out what their concerns are about the upcoming cuts;

Video by Agata Grafa and Mengdi Li