CHILDRENS CENTRES: THE BIG CON

At the last full council meeting a petition from Olga Children’s Centre was presented asking that it should stay open. Rumours abound in the community and the Children’s Centre staff that 11 0ut of the 23 Children’s Centres will close, hence the petition from Olga Children’s Centre. The politicians assured Raquel Eduardo presenting the petition that none of the 23 Children’s Centres in Tower Hamlets would close.

The restructuring proposal documents which recently came out paint a very different and troubling version of events. The documents reveal of the current 23 Children’s Centres 12 will become known as Community Hubs delivering services which are essentially the same as currently provided, however the other 11 children’s Centres will become known as Early Years Provisions where only paid places for children will be available therefore access will be denied to children whose parents can’t afford the service.

This will essentially mean only 12 out of the 23 Children’s Centres are available to parents who are unable to pay. The Council has given assurances that Children’s Centres won’t close. However transforming into paid services would mean much the same thing for many parents. Parents wanting to access free services will need to travel much longer distances; this would mean many vulnerable parents would not be able to do so due to the fear or the cost of travelling. The Core Community Hubs will be Meath, Wapping, Mile End and around Poplar.

The Community Hubs will be Mowlem, Collingwood, Bigland, John Smith, Overland, Olga, Chrisp Street and Island House. The Children’s Centre restructuring is designed to save £2.7 million, £1.7 from staff reductions.

It transpires three layers of middle managers will be removed as well as much of the admin workers. The higher tiers of management however will remain immune to the restructuring, instead getting a pay rise as well as an addition of another higher tier manager whilst everyone else suffers job losses and reduced pay. The current three positions of Heads will become four positions of Locality Lead which will be paid at Scale 14-17 (£58,447-£61,818).

The frontline staff such as the permanent contract Family Support Workers (FSW) jobs will be safe. Currently there are 58 and four more workers will be employed, however as two Father’s Workers have had their posts deleted this would actually mean an addition of two to 60 FSW. All Parents as Partners in Early Learning (PPEL) posts will be removed. Children’s Centre workers that are London Borough of Tower Hamlets staff will also be further disadvantaged by the Voluntary Sector workers in Children’s Centres.

The Voluntary Sector staffs at the Children’s Centre’s are likely to be transferred under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) rules as council staff. This would leave the current council staff on short term contracts who should have more rights than Voluntary Sector workers at a clear disadvantage.

This is an unusual situation where Voluntary Sector workers have more employment security than current council staff; it has been speculated that there has been some internal dealings with council officers and managers of the Voluntary Sector Organisation such as in Jagonari and Bromley-By-Bow Centre to arrange this. Consultation is currently ongoing with staff and the unions with regards to the restructuring.

After posts have been deleted displaced workers will be interviewed for positions they submit an interest.