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Analysis: Working to withstand the cuts

A children's centre serving one of the UK's toughest estates is taking proactive steps to survive the coming spending review, says Melanie Defries.

While some children's centres remained unscathed by the Government and local authority cuts which followed the emergency budget in June, many are now battening down the hatches in advance of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, due to be published on 20 October.

Some settings, including the 1st Place Children and Parents Centre in Southwark, south London, have spent the summer exploring how to increase revenue to ensure they can withstand even the harshest of cuts.

Nicola Howard, director of 1st Place, explains, 'We have braced ourselves for a reduction in funding. When the Government is talking about cuts of up to 40 per cent to each department, we can only assume that those cuts will hit us as well. It feels as if we can't really plan anything until after the review has happened.'

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