WAVERLEY councillors have hit out at Surrey County Council over what they say has been a lack of communication about the closure of children’s centres.

Dozens of centres across Surrey will close their doors this month as £1 million of savings are made in 2019/20, and they are replaced with the Family Centre model.

Five Waverley centres are set to be axed – including Elstead and Villages, Potters Gate (Farnham) and Tennyson’s (Haslemere) – leaving just two ‘lead providers’ in the borough; Barnardo’s at Hale Primary School and Loseley Fields in Farncombe.

Thousands of people signed petitions to keep children’s centres open, but cabinet members agreed the restructuring of 58 centres in January, with the new Family Centre model being passed through council in February.

This was to reduce the number of children’s centres from 58 to 21 with an extra nine satellite centres and outreach work supporting them.

Concerns about the lack of communication over the closures were raised at the Waverley Local Committee on Friday, September 27. The budget for family support services in Waverley has been cut by nearly half and staff have been made redundant. 

The contract for delivering the county’s new style Family Centre model has been awarded to Barnardo’s.

But councillors have concerns about the cuts and say they only found out what was happening around the details of the closures from the staff who were losing their jobs – and not from the county council as they had asked for.

Councillors Paul Follows and Anne-Marie Rosoman asked for assurances they would be kept more informed of the transformation of Early Help services, with Waverley’s Lib Dem deputy leader Cllr Follows adding he had been kept more up to date by the departing staff at Haslemere Children’s Centre.

He said: “I’ve not had formal confirmation from the county as promised about the cuts. I do have grave concerns about the cuts.”

Cllr Nikki Barton, independent county councillor for Haslemere, added she has been “appalled” by the lack of consultation.

She said it had been “really depressing” that she was not able to support staff losing their jobs because she was not aware it was happening.

Responding, a Surrey County Council spokesman said: “Plans for new Family Centres and service provision have been published on the County Council Family Information website and we’ve been engaging with parents throughout this process.”

By Rebecca CurleyLocal Democracy Reporter