An extra £2m is being invested in supporting vulnerable people and will help keep more children’s centres open.
The money - gathered through council tax - will be injected into a new Family Wellbeing Service and means six more centres remaining open than originally proposed.
The new service brings together children’s centres, Supporting Leicestershire Families (SLF), Youth Offending Service (YOS) and Information, Support and Assessment teams into one new-style service.
A three-month consultation on plans attracted nearly 800 responses.
People value their children’s centres - and we’ve always recognised that some people will be affected by the proposals. That’s why we’ve listened to what they have had to say and we are earmarking more money.
We face significant funding challenges and merging ‘early help’ services enables us to bring down costs by reducing duplication. But we’re committed to helping families who need the most support.
This extra investment offsets the Government’s ‘troubled families’ fund we’re expecting to end, reducing the impact on vulnerable people.
Person:Councillor Ivan Ould, cabinet member for children and families
The new Family Wellbeing Service will:
- Support vulnerable children aged 0-19 and their families
- Operate from 21 buildings across the county – an increase of six centres from the original proposals
- Reduce costs by £1.5m
- Deliver support in people’s homes and other community venues
The six centres which will remain open are at Melton (The Edge), Shelthorpe (Loughborough), Bagworth, Moira, Braunstone and Barwell.
The 12-week consultation resulted in 794 responses, the vast majority of feedback coming from users of the children’s centres.
I want to thank all those people who took the trouble to contribute to the consultation, and we have tried to address many of the concerns expressed in the feedback.
Person:Councillor Ould
Find out more - Budget 2023 to 2027 consultation