I WAS pleased your newspaper covered the decision made by Cheshire West and Chester Council to introduce a new Starting Well Service.
This new service will deliver an innovative and ambitious service for our 0-19-year-olds and their families by integrating our children’s centres, health visiting and school nursing services.
I was, however, slightly perturbed to see that the headline of this story focused rather negatively on cuts to children’s centres stating ‘services to be axed’.
I believe this is rather misleading and indeed did not accurately reflect the decision made.
Although the delivery of services has been realigned and some centres will be focusing on delivering just one or two aspects of the Children Centre core offer, such as early years education, our children’s centres remain open and we have been keen to make sure all services are accessible to residents.
At a time when cuts to local government funding have meant that children’s centres up and down the country have been forced to close and many more are under threat, I am pleased that we have made a commitment to this valued service to ensure we can fulfil our ambition that every child gets the best start in life.
By combining the children’s centre offer with the health visiting and school nursing service, we are not only creating one seamless service which will serve children and families better, but we can also make the savings forced upon us.
The fact that this proposal won cross-party support and was the preferred option of stakeholders and service-users is testament to the support this new model enjoys.
Most importantly, however, it provides an exciting opportunity to improve the outcomes for all children and families.
Cllr Nicole Meardon Cabinet member for children and families Cheshire West and Chester Council
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