BUSHY Leaze Children and Family Centre is looking forward to a bright future despite the withdrawl of funding by Hampshire County Council – but it needs help.

The county council is closing most of its children and family (SureStart) centres, including the one attached to Bushy Leaze Nursery in Alton.

But, determined not to lose its services, the team at Bushy Leaze has taken the bold decision to retain the centre’s staff and fund its services independently in order to continue to provide support and care for families with pre-school children living in the area.

And they are confident the community will provide the support they will need in order to achieve this.

The changes have been brought about as the result of a review by the county council into the provision of Family Support Services, driven by cuts in Whitehall funding.

Determined, following public consultation, to maintain essential services in the face of government-imposed austerity measures, and particularly services for those with high levels of need, Hampshire County Council has taken the decision to develop a new integrated Family Support Service, which it is hoped will save £8.5m by combining children’s centres, Early Help Hubs and youth support budgets into a single service, targeted at the most vulnerable families.

In East Hampshire, as from Monday, Surestart services will no longer be provided from Chase at Bordon, Bushy Leaze and Heath at Petersfield, leaving Park House in Alton as the Family Support Service Hub for the district: one of 11 across the county from which outreach services will operate. 

While this could be seen as good news for Alton, whose family support hub would be retained, it could mean the loss of vital early- years provision for families who have come to rely on Bushy Leaze as a haven of support. The Family Support Hub will be able to provide only targeted services for families who meet certain thresholds and they will need to be referred to the service. Bushy Leaze provides not only these specialist targeted services, but many early-years intervention, open-access groups that anyone can attend. Services under threat include first-time parents’ and toddler groups, family support work, dads matter, cook and eat, language support, HENRY and holiday stay and play groups.

Head of centre Patti Snook and her team have determined to carry on delivering as many services as possible and have set up a registered charity ‘Bushy Leaze Community Support Fund’ to raise the necessary funds.

Initially, according to Mrs Snook, the aim is to raise £20,000 by March, but from then on the charity will need to raise £130,000 every year to pay staff and retain service provision.

The building in Eastbrooke Road will still house Bushy Leaze Nursery which, was rated ‘Outstanding’ – as it has been continuously since 2002 – after a recent Ofsted Inspection.

The Inspector told Mrs Snook that she had received a lot of “positive feedback” from present and past parents and acknowledged how much the community values Bushy Leaze.

Delighted with the rating, Mrs Snook pointed out that the nursery was a key part of the Bushy Leaze Centre, which aims “to make a difference for all children”, and Ofsted agreed that it succeeds in its mission.

The nursery, which has retained county council funding, will continue to run alongside the newly independent children’s centre, at the Bushy Leaze building in Eastbrooke Road.

Centre bosses are appealing to the public for help inn the form of donations or offers to run a fundraising event. To get involved, call the Bushy Leaze trustees via Clare Allen on 01420 87675 or email [email protected].