As details begin to leak about Salford Council's impending £56million of cuts over the next two years, parents at Lower Broughton Children's Centre have been talking about how they managed to salvage their Sure Start centre from last year's cuts.
Salford Council originally wanted to close the Children's Centre, based at River View Primary School, and move the services to the Higher Broughton Hub – a possible forty minute walk uphill for the majority of parents who didn't have a car.
Parents at the well-used centre immediately launched a campaign to save it, with petitions, media appearances and by joining with other anti-cuts campaigners in Salford and beyond, including attendance at the `banned' Rally On The Lawn outside Salford Civic Centre (see previous Salford Star article – click here). Parents who had never been involved in anything political found themselves creating placards, involving their children and making public speeches. It paid off...
With a local election looming, councillors, worried that they wouldn't get the parents' votes, turned up for meetings at weekends, and in the end actually listened to concerns and acted upon them.
The Lower Broughton Children's centre, which should have been closed by now, is still open and packed out five mornings a week.
"We're happy but we're not happy as we would have liked it to stay as it was" says campaigner Elaine Connolly "It was built as a children's centre so as far as we're concerned it should have stayed as a children's centre full time.
"We saved the mornings, but lost the afternoons and the office so the staff won't be based here" she explains "They're based at the Higher Broughton Hub so if a parent comes in and wants help there won't be anyone here in the afternoon. But people need that advice."
The staff were there full time, not just to run `stay and play' sessions and things like that, but also to help with social and benefit problems, and running training courses to aid getting parents back into work. All those services are still running but are now limited by time and space at the Lower Broughton Centre, and, instead, are split between centres in Higher Broughton, and Charlestown and Lower Kersal.
"We've still got the crèche room, the training room and the family room but no office by January" says Elaine "It shouldn't have been closed in the first place, it should still be full time as people need it. They should look at the numbers of people who use this place."
Parents now have the option in the afternoons of traipsing to the Higher Broughton Hub for the services... "I do go there but I'm lucky, I've got a car" she explains "If I didn't have one I wouldn't be able to get there as I've got a disability so there's no way I could walk. I'd have nowhere to take my children."
The general feeling, however, is that this was a victory for the campaign...
"It's better than it being closed but the best would have been if it would have stayed as it was" says parent Adam Heiss "We don't know many people in the area so my daughter would have been deprived of the time she played with other kids. The campaign definitely played a part but ideally you shouldn't have to fight for these things, they should be provided by the state."
The sentiment is shared by parent Keri Muldoon, who won a Salix Salford Star Award (no relation to the Salford Star) for her community efforts this week... "We are glad to be still be here and are now a constituted group, trying to get funding" she says "I'm going to be at Lower Broughton Sure Start a lot now, as I have started my GNVQ in child care because of going to this centre."
The pressure that the campaign put on the Council and, particularly local councillors, ensured that the centre is still operating
"Without it we wouldn't be here" says Elaine "Councillors Merry and McIntyre had meetings with us and came to an agreement to help save the mornings. I emailed them to say that parents didn't know who to vote for! Without the campaign, however, we wouldn't have what we have now."
As Salford Council considers its next round of barbaric cuts, the Lower Broughton Children's Centre is proof that big campaigns can have a major effect on the provision of services.
* See also previous related Salford Star articles...
* Salford Council Bends To Children's Centre campaigns - click here
* Salford Campaigning To Save Sure Start Children's Centres - click here
Main photo by Steven Speed
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