Families may help pay for sessions at children’s centres

A public consultation into the future of the city’s 21 children’s centres showed parents were in favour of charges being introduced for some activities. The council, which is trying to save £1m from just its children’s centres budget by 2015, is proposing to charge between £1 and £2 for play and stay sessions, baby massage, family fun days and other family activities.

It may also stop providing free safety equipment, stairgates, fire grates and cupboard locks, except in cases of exceptional need, to save £80,000 a year.

A third of the centres - Bude, Dorchester, McMillan, Ainthorpe, Bricknell, Estcourt and Longhill - could go part-time, with the loss of the equivalent of 5.5 jobs in reception and administration. A report says there are 2.5 vacant positions that have not be filled to reduce the impact on staff. However, creches will still be subsidised.

A council spokeswoman said charging families between £1 and £2 to attend sessions could generate between £25,000 and £50,000 a year, and added: “Around 90 per cent of users were in favour of voluntary contributions. Clearly we have to be realistic and in the real world when it comes to making that contribution families may struggle to do that. We can’t predict a particular level of income, neither have we built that into savings.”

Although some centres could go part-time, “there will always be a centre within reasonable reach of a family that will be open”, she added.

A report, which will go to the council’s Cabinet for a decision later this month, said the voluntary nature of the contribution means that “it will be left to the individual parent or carer to make a contribution if they are able to do so. This means that families who are facing real hardship will not be excluded from services because of a financial barrier”.