Agenda and minutes

In accordance with Paragraph 17 of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Rules, a requisition signed by two Members representing more than one Group (Councillors Keith Darvill and Gillian Ford) had called in a decision of Cabinet dated 13 February 2013. 

The requisition concerned a decision made by Cabinet on 13 February 2013 regarding proposals for the merger of Children Centre activities around 6 hub sites. Alternative operators (such as Schools and Libraries) would run and maintain the other smaller and less-used sites, which would be decommissioned as Children Centres, but continue to provide early years services such as pre-school provision. Cabinet made the following decisions:

1.    Approved the decommissioning of the following Children’s Centres and the services currently provided within them to be transferred to the remaining hub sites by 2 April 2013, subject to receiving final approval from the Department for Education:

•              Airfield

•              Harold Court

•              Hilldene

•              Pyrgo

•              South Hornchurch

•              Thistledene

•              Upminster

2.    Approved the continued provision of services from the following larger hub centres:

•              Collier Row

•              Chippenham Road

•              Elm Park

•              Ingrebourne

•              St Kildas

•              Rainham Village

3.    The commencement of a tendering process for construction/ refurbishment works at issue of tenders for Harold Court Primary, Harold Wood Primary, Mead Primary, Parsonage Farm Primary, Rise Park Infant and Junior schools, Towers Infant and Junior schools, together with all associated investigations e.g. soil survey

4.    That the final allocation of available Capital funding as detailed within this report be delegated to the Lead Members for Children and Learning and Value, and the Group Directors of Children’s Services and Finance and Commerce.

Reasons for Requisition

The reasons for the requisition were detailed on the formal notification and were detailed as follows:

1.    The decision appears to be counter to Central Government and the Councils policies on early intervention

2.    The decision does not appear to have taken due consideration to the rise in the birth rate

3.    To allow Overview & Scrutiny Committees to consider the impact of the Council taking responsibility for Public Health Policy before the closure of Children's Centres.

In discussions, the Committee was asked to note that the proposals sought to ensure that children’s centres would be aligned to early help measures. The emphasis on early help had arisen following the report by Frank Field, which highlighted the imperative for early intervention. The benefits of the new ‘hub and spoke’ model for children’s centres would mean that outreach work was improved and would mean that resources would be more targeted and focussed on services.

Members raised concern about the continued existence of some of the smaller centres, which, it had been proposed, would be closed and this was a matter of deep concern as it was suggested that these centres were crucial to the community despite decreased footfall or use of them. There was concern that the closures were taking place at the wrong time and without detailed consultation. With a developing local health agenda it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.