Communities will be given greater access to facilities across North Yorkshire after 18 children’s centres are to be made available for wider use.
Members our have today (Tuesday, 15 October) approved plans to deregister the centres allowing greater flexibility in the future use of the buildings so that they can best meet the needs of the local community.
Since 2019, our children and families service has been committed to basing early help and safeguarding teams together where possible to improve communications, share best practice and provide joined-up services for families.
However, over this period, there has been a review of all of our properties and leased spaces across the county enabling closer working for staff including children and families early help service and safeguarding teams.
Early Help redesigned the delivery of the activities to support children and their families moving to an approach involving both online and face-to-face activities. This has enabled the delivery of a countywide virtual activities programme which families are able to access from their home and reducing the need for the same number of premises.
A four-week consultation period took place from 27 August to explore the potential of the use of the buildings in the future, as well as the option of closure.
Out of 224 respondents, 54 per cent strongly supported, or supported reviewing the children’s centres designation. The majority were in favour of de-registration of the centres to provide opportunities for alternative use of the buildings. This includes opportunities for an increase in early years provision, transferring the buildings to schools, communities using the buildings for a range of activities and potentially turning them into community hubs.
Executive member for children and families, Cllr Janet Sanderson, said: “By approving the recommendation to deregister 18 centres, it ensures that children’s services continue to operate in the same areas as they currently do. However, the approach is about better use of existing buildings in the community for the benefit of all.”
Assistant director for children and families, Mel Hutchinson, added: “Our aim is to unlock the full potential of our children’s centres by deregistering their status to be utilised by the community or charities, thereby benefiting young people and the wider community in a holistic way.
“In the 'Let’s Talk Money' 2022 and 2023 surveys, it was evident that the public wanted us to explore delivering value-for-money services. We are looking at how we can do that and realise the full potential of buildings owned by North Yorkshire Council, including our children’s centres.”
Looking ahead, plans will be explored to establish a working group to identify the future requirements of the children and young people’s service to ensure the delivery of services while looking at the number of buildings needed to do so.&
This will then open up opportunities for the council to explore the future use of some of these buildings and potentially transferring them to schools, early years providers and the community.