Children's services shake-up
Moving services provided by Sure Start centre to the middle of Oswestry could see families in need missing out, a councillor has said.
Shropshire Council is considering closing down a number of the centres - set up to help families with young children - a move currently subject to public consultation.
In Oswestry the plans involved moving the services to The Centre, a youth hub off Oak street.
Sure Start centre were launched across the UK in 1998 with the aim of giving children the best possible start in life" through improvement of childcare, early education, health and family support.
At Oswestry Town Council this week Councillor Clare Aspinall said the move and the effect it would have across the county worried her.
"There will be areas where the help will not be there," she said.
When asked to keep her comments to the town, the councillors said that while Oswestry would continue to have a base at The Centre, it would not be in areas where families lived.
"Woodside will lose its Sure Start centre," she said.
"Will the families who benefit from the services that have been offered there come into The Centre. We may lose the chance to help these families."
Councillor Vince Hunt, a governor at Woodside School, said: "When Sure Start began it worked very well. But over the years it was somewhat hijacked by parents who simply wanted their children go to the school."
He said that The Centre had become a hub for children and family services.
"We are very lucky in Oswestry to have such a project that is a pilot that will be rolled out across Shropshire in the future," he said.
Shropshire Council has said that the 20 buildings that would no longer house Sure Start Centres would not be closed, rather it was anticipated that they would be used by other organisations providing services for children and families.
In a public statement it said: "The proposed new delivery model for Early Help services across the county will provide whole family support.
"We want to provide support to children and families who are most in need of our help, quickly and in the right way. We also currently spend an awful lot of money on a lot of buildings, some of which are only used for a very small part of the week.
"We think it would be far better to focus our resources on providing services for those who need our help, rather than paying for buildings."
The council is proposing that Children's Centre services are delivered from The Centre in Oswestry, Richmond House and Crowmoor Centre, Shrewsbury, Rockspring Centre, Ludlow and sites in Whitchurch and Bridgnorth still to be decided.
