Children’s centres have been a major contribution to my positive experience of first-time motherhood. From my home in the London Borough of Haringey, I regularly accessed services from at least five different centres, including midwife appointments, breastfeeding support groups, weighing clinics and stay-and-play sessions. When the time came to arrange childcare before I returned to work, I naturally turned to the centres for guidance. But the day I called my local centre to confirm the time of the next childminder stay-and-play group, I was instead invited to its closing party.
Children’s centres aim to give help and advice on child and family health and parenting, as well as money, training and employment. The Government began developing the network from 1999. By 2010 there were more than 3,600 children’s centres in England. But since then they have been in decline as local authorities try to cut costs as a result of government funding reductions. In 2015, the then childcare minister Sam Gyimah said 250 ‘main’ children’s centres had closed.
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