Majority of children and family centres are still slated for closure under revised plans
The closure of the majority of West Sussex children and family centres could be agreed later this month.
West Sussex County Council consulted on a redesign of its early help services earlier this year with 1,948 people, including 301 children and young people, responding.
The initial proposals, which the council says are about ensuring the most effective use of resources by focusing on those most in need, would have seen just 11 of the current 43 children and family centres retained. All the Find It Out young advice centres are slated for closure.
Following the consultation, officers are proposing to keep an additional centre at Lancing.
Other changes would see Find It Out services run in the remaining children and family centres, including after school drop-in and daily bookable
appointments where early help will travel to a location that suits a young person.
Early help will continue to offer some specific group work where there is an identified need and dedicated staffing in
the centres will be responsible for publicising services so people know how to get the support they need.
The revised proposals are due to be discussed by the children and young people’s
services scrutiny committee on Tuesday, July 20, and recommendations made to cabinet, which is meeting the week after.
A report on the consultation responses noted strong support for the need to find further resources to work with the most vulnerable but not necessarily at the expense of closing individual centres.
There is ‘great public affection and loyalty’ towards the existing centres, including in their role as a focus and meeting place within their communities.
But officers noted respondents found it difficult to differentiate between the centres’ public health functions, which are broadly unaffected by the proposals, and their early help functions.
Many also mistakenly assumed the proposal involved ending all services and functions within the centres proposed for the withdrawal of early help services.
A new model is proposed from the remaining 12 family centres, which would be open on a full-time basis and provide the opportunity for children’s social care staff to co-locate.
The county council proposes ‘an increase in staff delivering targeted support with a view to the service operating in a more flexible way in local communities’.
Children who are identified as in need of help through an early help plan, will receive whole-family co-ordinated support from a dedicated 1:1 support worker in their home and community.
If the redesign is approved, the county council says it will work with Public Health to negotiate lease arrangements with health partners to try and facilitate the continued delivery of the healthy child programme from those buildings. The property and assets team has already been in discussions about the future use of buildings and has started to collate expressions of interest.
If revised proposals are agreed later this month, it is anticipated that staff consultation on the proposals will begin in September with the new model being implemented in December.