Oxfordshire children's centres: 90 redundancy letters sent out

Protesters demonstrated outside County Hall in February when the size of the cuts to children's services were revealed

A council has sent out 90 redundancy letters to staff days before Christmas.

Staff at Oxfordshire County Council's children's centres were sent the letters as the council prepares to cut funding for more than half of them by March 2017.

The authority admitted the timing of the news was "very regrettable" and added staff were "fully updated" throughout the process.

The job losses come after 32 other staff members were made redundant.

The council said in the first round of cuts, 24 people took voluntary redundancy.

'Prolong uncertainty'

The authority announced its intentions to cut funding for children's services in February, reducing the number of council-run centres across the county from 44 to 18.

A spokesman said the council had provided "transitional funding" for six children's centres to become community-run, and on Wednesday the council agreed to waive rents for centres under threat of closure for one year.

The authority said that it had planned to inform children's centre staff of redundancies on 28 November, but argued a legal challenge had prolonged the process.

In July the cuts to children's centres funding were challenged in the High Court, which ruled in the council's favour and said the case had "no merit".

A bid for a judicial review was also rejected by the High Court in December.

A council spokesman said: "Not only did this prolong the uncertainty for our staff and further burden the public purse, but the court directed that the council could not provide staff with clarity about their employment until after the appeal hearing which was ultimately decided in the council's favour."