REJECTED: Plea To Rethink Closing Many Children And Family Centres In West Sussex

Ruling Conservatives on West Sussex County Council have rejected a call from opposition councillors to re-think closing 31 of the county's 43 Children and Family Centres, in which Labour members accused the cabinet of "pre-determining" a decision.

Labour, claiming support from LibDems, had last week sent a request to "call-in" the decision which, as More Radio reported, would leave only twelve centres open, providing Early Help services.

The attempt to gain a reconsideration would have used a mechanism for councillors to compel further scrutiny of a choice the authority had made.

But late on Friday evening (August 6), County Hall said its monitoring officer had decided that a referral back to committees should not take place.

The County Council stated:

"The proposals and all supporting information had already been fully scrutinized on two occasions by the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee.

"The second time was just a week before the Cabinet meeting which approved the plans on Tuesday 27 July, and a full report on the recommendations and comments from the Scrutiny Committee was before the cabinet when they met."

In addition to opposition councillors' dismay at the decision to concentrate the Early Help service in just 12 centres in West Sussex, closing 31 others, a public survey into the changes found users had not seen them favourably.

A consultation into the redesign attracted almost 2,000 responses – most of which were opposed to the changes.

But it did lead to a few tweaks of the redesign, the biggest of which was to keep the Lancing Early Help service running.

Ahead of the decision to make the change, Lucy Butler, executive director of children, young people & learning, said the current Early Help offer involved targeted support – a help plan aimed specifically at a family – and open access (drop-in) provision.

Explaining that this way of doing things was no longer fit for purpose, she added:

“We’ve seen a huge increase in demand for our most vulnerable children and families, meaning that we need to have more of our resources for targeted support.

“Our current model simply does not give us the required resources to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children.”

Labour's argument centered on five points, including an accusation that the decision was pre-determined — a matter County Hall has not yet commented upon.

Opposition councillors said the public consultation was flawed, the decision-makers did not pay sufficient attention to comments made by the Children and Young People's Scrutiny Committee, a risk assessment connected to the removal of services was not completed, and the movement of Early Help services from centres due to be closed would cause "irrevocable damage" to vulnerable families.

Caroline Baxter, deputy Labour leader on West Sussex County Council, said:

"The overwhelming majority of people who responded to the consultation didn’t want their centres to close.

"We believe this decision has been a done deal for months, if not years.

"To then have one of the biggest responses ever to a consultation and then ignore all those people who responded shows the disdain this Conservative administration at the County Council has for its residents.”

But Jacquie Russell, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, responded:

“The County Council is absolutely committed to providing an Early Help Service that is wholly focused on improving our support to the children and families who need our help the most and doing so in the way that best meets their needs.

“I would like to reiterate our thanks to everyone who took part in the 10-week public consultation on our Early Help service.

"Significant changes have been made in response to the feedback received which we consider will further enhance what we now plan to deliver.

“I hope we will all be able to work together to focus on the help needed by all of the children and families in West Sussex.”