Warwickshire children's centres face £2.3m cuts

Warwickshire children's centres face a £2.3m cut to their budget next year.

The county council said the loss equated to 30% of the current budget. The service has already been cut by 7% this year.

Kathy McGale, chair of governors at Stockingford Early Years Centre in Nuneaton, said it was unclear how the cuts would fall across Warwickshire.

The council said it would hold an eight-week public consultation in the summer.

Children's centres offer help and support to parents of young children.

Ms McGale said she was worried that reducing services to families would impact on workloads within other council departments.

'Domestic violence'

She said: "Some of these families have got severe problems, often financial, sometimes relationship problems.

"Sometimes there's domestic violence going on in the family or there's substance abuse.

"These support workers are working with and actually saving money from social services by intervening early with these families."

The council's head of learning and achievement, Sarah Callaghan, said: "We have to rethink how we work and prioritise our more vulnerable families, so will be reviewing the way we provide children's centre services."

She added that families in greatest need would be targeted.