Gosport MP raises Sure Start issue with Prime Minister
SUPPORT Caroline Dinenage MP asks her question in the House of Commons.
GOSPORT MP Caroline Dinenage spoke up in Prime Minister’s Questions to support Hampshire County Council’s proposals to merge Sure Start centres.
Making a dig at Chris Huhne MP who has openly criticised planned closures of centres, she said: ‘Despite recent vocal party political mischief-making over the future of Sure Start, would the Prime Minister welcome Hampshire’s proposals to protect all front line services while saving public money by cutting back office costs?’
The county’s proposals to cut the number of centres from 81 to 53 by merging existing sites, and to tender out large clusters of centres to a single provider, have come up against major opposition from parents county-wide.
Ms Dinenage said parents had however been ‘misled’. She explained: ‘Some parents have been aggravated by unhelpful comments made by certain politicians.
‘The intention is not there to blatantly shut down centres where they are valuable.
‘Hampshire has pledged to protect all frontline services. I will be keeping up the pressure on them, every step of the way, to make sure that they do.’
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Comments
There are 61 comments to this article
Page 1 of 5
liverpoolboy
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 10:11 AM26 Doh.
Liebour 1997-2010
Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 09:53 AMoldres, you should check your facts....The interest rate at the time of the 1997 General Election (thats the one that brought Blair to office as PM) was 6.25% and by the summer of 1998 it was standing at 7.5%.....So like the rest of post its utter nonsense and the one fact you did quote was wrong.....By the way Gordon Brown repaid £22bn of Government debt in 1998 1999, so there was money available he just didn't want to spend it.
oldres
Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 09:40 AMCannot agreewith HMS Troutbridge.The last government did not chuck money away.They saved the Banks,the Car industry, people losing their homes , kept the morgage rate down(unlke the tories who left us with a15% rate when they left office, plus debts which stopped the labour government doing anything for two years, as far as Sure start is concerned, it was one of the best things that labour did even Dinenage said that when she last spoke,I dont know if Troutbridge is in the Navy or not , because its nice to see they are to take big cutbacks, perhaps it will stop them beering up at lunch time and going home by 3pm
Liebour 1997-2010
Monday, April 4, 2011 at 03:36 PMRedRosie you will get a good telling off later on, some people on here don't appreicate the truth.......Well the evidence is in and the Sure Start is guilty as charged of wasting £25bn of taxpayers money..... I trust this current Government will spend the money more wisely to help people who need genuine help as opposed to the last lot who just chucked loads of money at problems and had no idea if it done any good or not.....To Wembley and Julee please refrain from entering a career in the legal profession where evidence based material is key, you would make any client very unhappy....Have a nice day
wizard of oz
Monday, April 4, 2011 at 10:52 AMSomeones getting there knickers in a twist, can only comment if I'm an expert in any subject, not allowed to go to a childrens centre, what are you the cyber police or Mrs Hitler
RedRosie
Monday, April 4, 2011 at 10:09 AM8. The obsession with data collection and targets. They had been planning to have software installed on the systems which would have recorded every visit by every child to every session. This would then have been cross referenced with all the primary school data and beyond to see if (for example) a child attending a particular session would go on to be a higher achiever than a child which didn't attend. In effect this would create a digital footprint of all state contact from birth to adulthood. 9. Complete digital incompetence. Thankfully the software mentioned above never got off the ground because of the shocking level of council computer skills. This also meant that in a digital age our children's centre was completely without a website. (And even more amazingly it still is another two years on) Instead we relied on a quarterly newsletter to spread any information
RedRosie
Monday, April 4, 2011 at 10:08 AM5. A confusion of aims. Despite the fact that our aim was to reach out to the most disadvantaged in society, a rollcall of regular members would show comfortably well off middle-class women as our most frequent users. Out of a potential pool of about 1000 families with young children we probably never got more than a hundred through the door at all, and of them probably had about 50 regulars. Of them I reckon maybe about 10 could be classed as "disadvantaged". However you slice it, a pretty poor ratio. 6. A Council mentality of building buildings rather than investing in them. Before I'd even left the council were already planning to build a new centre a couple of miles down the road. The extra staff that had been promised were now to be split between both sites. Our children's Centre had apparently been successfully launched, and they were moving on to something new. 7. The needless waste of resources. One of the worst was a £50,000 shopping binge at the end of March in order to clear the budget surplus. This was wasted on new office furniture (for a newly kitted out office!) even though we were unable to find an extra few pounds to employ a full-time children's worker to actually staff the drop-in area.
RedRosie
Monday, April 4, 2011 at 10:08 AMI spent over a year working as a temp at a sure start centre. Whilst I can't speak for any other centres, there were a host of issues at mine: 1. A massive overspend on building costs. The project came in £500,000 over budget and several months late. It was also a local architect's pet project which meant that he was more interested in designing a building that looked nice than one that was actually usable. As a result less than 12 months after it had been opened it had to be shut down again for a couple of weeks whilst major rebuilding took place to the tune of £100,000. 2. A complete bureaucratic confusion. In the 12 months that I was there we singularly failed to put up a sign outside the building to let people know what the building was. This was because there was continued disagreement up at the higher echelons of the local council as to what should be put on it. The end result was that having spent over £2 million on the building most people would walk past not realising what was inside. 3. An utterly ridiculous private public partnership. We shared our premises with a local nursery. The idea was that they would share the bills, pay rent etc etc. Unfortunately the council were so keen to get anybody on board that no formal contract was ever drawn up and signed. The result? After a year the nursery had paid no rent at all (and were actually contesting whether they needed to back pay anything), and all the phone bills, cleaning bills, general site maintenance were being picked up by the children's Centre. The local social services department was tied into a £12,000 a year contract for nursery places even though these were never used. 4. A massive top-heavy management structure without investment in front-line services. Whilst I was there there were three different managers, two of which wholly inadequate middle management types from the council with absolutely no experience in running such a centre. We had a manager, a deputy manager, two administration staff and a single part-time children's worker. Yes, the total spend on people who would actually come face-to-face with members of the public was less than £10,000 per year. We were always promised more staff but they didn't come
Wembley27
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 10:35 PMThanks Wizard. Maybe we should just let the readers judge who is pathetic.
Julee29
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 09:13 PMWembley 27 is quite right visit a centre and see the remarkable early intervention work that happens. Wizard I beg to differ as you have made a selection of far more pathetic comments where you have personally attacked individuals! This shows the type of person you are and TBH you would not be welcome in a children's centre as they are inclusive environments. People like you are the reason why we need centres. Grow up and only make comments on subjects you have adequate knowledge in.
wizard of oz
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 03:12 PMWembley27, your post 50 is most pathetic comment I have ever read on this site. Why don't you just answer some of the bloody questions instead of playing the emotional card with a violin playing in the background. The huge amounts of money spent on sure start has been a huge waste of money, contact Radio Taxi's for further details to see how money is being wasted.
Wembley27
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 02:17 PMWhat a strange, yet predictable, set of replies from Mr Troutbridge. Surely, you can get all the answers you need from a visit to a real life Surestart Centre, and by meeting real staff and real parents? That will more than adequately provide the hard, factual evidence you crave so desperately. Perhaps a meeting with a mum who was contemplating taking her own life due to post natal depression issues and received help from a Centre? Perhaps to meet some children who were likely to end up being taken into care, were it not for the support provided to their parent(s) by the Surestart programme. Perhaps to meet just some ordinary people who have received help in so many different ways. Why you demand answers from people on the forum of a local rag 200 miles from your home is anyone's guess. Visit a Centre near to your home and get all the answers you want, and possibly a cup of tea too (at the taxpayer's expense, of course)! You never know, you might learn something. Go on, what have you got to lose?
Liebour 1997-2010
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 08:23 AMI'll tell you what you answer my simple questions with facts to back them up on this forum, then I will visit a local Sure Start centre........How difficult can that be, there only simple questions and despite £25bn being spent no one can answer them.
Liebour 1997-2010
Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 08:18 AMStill no answers to my simple questions regarding the £25bn spent on Sure Start
Wembley27
Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 08:45 PMDear HMS Troutbridge, You clearly have plenty of time during the working week to glean information from various google searches and to spend time posting on local newspaper websites. How about finding your nearest Surestart centre (there is one within a few miles of most addresses in England) and going for a visit? I'm sure the management team and parent representatives would gladly give their time to explain and educate exactly what type of work they do. They could provide you with case studies, reams of data evidence and meetings with real parents using the centres. Then you would have real, tangible evidence and experience on which to base your views. If your views remain the same, then fair enough, but you might find your opinion is at least worthy of some respect. How about it? Too easy an offer to refuse, surely?
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