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Children’s centres saved after regional daily campaign

Two children’s centres have been saved from closure three weeks after a daily newspaper began a campaign to spare them from council cuts.

Brighton title The Argus began the Save Our Centres campaign on January 28 after parents voiced their fears children would suffer if Brighton and Hove City Council went through with cuts.

In a bid to make savings before setting the 2015/16 budget, the council was considering putting four children’s centres at risk.

It also suggested shutting down baby groups, cutting back on staff and reducing health visits for youngsters which could affect thousands of families.

Argus campaign front

The Argus called on the council to rethink its plans with a series of articles, and it has now announced two will be spared.

As part of its campaign, the brainchild of senior reporter Flora Thompson and assistant news editor Arron Hendy, The Argus has run an investigation in to the council’s accounts which shows the authority is sitting on £30m which could be spent instead of making the cuts.

It has also spoken to childcare and education experts, single parents, stay at home dads, campaigners, grandparents and councillors.

The Argus splashed on the story on Thursday, pictured above, but other centres remain at risk if a 5.9pc council tax rise is not approved at the authority’s budget meeting this week.

The campaign was given the green light by incoming editor Mike Gilson, who takes up his post today.

Said Mike: “It is great news the voices of parents and others who value these services have been heard but there is still a long way to go.

“The last-minute changes show there were options open to the council instead of cuts.

“We will continue the Save Our Centres campaign to protect the two remaining centres and related services.”

2 comments

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  • February 27, 2015 at 4:31 pm
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    The Argus have the most extraordinary cheek to claim this campaign as their own. It was actually started, and owes much of its success, to the Brighton Children’s Centre Campaign, started by Felicity Erin-Robinson and Leila Erin-Jenkins, two Bevendean sisters and local Children’s Centre users.

    I know that they very much welcomed the Argus’s support, but later came to be blocked out of most of the Argus’s coverage because Flora Thompson (chief reporter) took umbrage at them for being excluded from their founding meeting (which was for parents and carers and lay supporters, not councillors or journalists).

    To the credit of Flora and other Argus journos, the Argus campaigning on this issue has made a welcome change. I hope Flora and the new Argus editor continue this campaigning work against public sector cuts.

    Well done Flora…and, even more, Leila, Felicity and all the other parents, carers and campaigners who are running this model campaign.

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  • February 28, 2015 at 2:29 pm
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    Myself and my sister Felicity Erin-Robinson started Brighton Children’s Centres Campaign in early January when it became clear to us the proposed cuts to Children’s Centres across our city would be catastrophic. Our work involved visiting all the centres and informing parents of a meeting we were planning, with the intention of protesting on the day of the Council budget meeting, which we did as we marched through the streets of Brighton with the support of over 100 parents last Thursday. We sought the help of many volunteers, taking flyers round to their home addresses so they could visit various groups and talk to parents too. Our work also involved informing parents that everyone needed to fill in the council’s consultation on the proposals to let them know we strongly opposed them. The Council had confused parents by having 2 consultations, the original one about charging for groups, and many believed they had already filled it in, leading to a very low response rate for the 2nd consultation about closing groups. As a direct result of this, plus our Facebook group ‘Brighton Parents Against Children’s Centre & Library Group Closures’, of over 600 members, we managed to triple the consultation response rate, resulting in the saving of 2 centres. The Argus took full credit for this and failed to mention us or our parent volunteers whatsoever, instead they claimed they had achieved this when they had started their campaign just 4 days before the closure of the consultation. We had been working on this for 2 weeks prior to this and this was achieved through the concerted effort of a small but dedicated group of parent volunteers visiting 17 centres informing parents, not a journalist visiting just 2 to get photographs and quotes from parents. While we welcome the support of the Argus and any publicity to raise awareness of our campaign, it upsets many from the group that this is being presented as ‘the brainchild of senior reporter Flora Thompson and assistant news editor Arron Hendy’. Naming it ‘Save our Centres’ and reporting on our campaign doesn’t make it theirs. This is the parent’s campaign, and any reporting on it should be focused on how the parents across Brighton and Hove organised themselves when cuts from the National Government threatened their Children’s Centres. The Petition the parent’s group started has now gained over 900 signatures on Change.Org, find it at ‘Stop the proposed cuts to Children’s Services’. We are hoping to reach 1250 signatures in order to present it for debate at the next Council meeting as over half a million is still being cut from our Children’s Centres budget and 2 centres are still at risk. Our Petition no longer features in The Argus’ reporting. I think this says it all.

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