It's about politics in Medway
#MedwayElects19 had 199 candidates but only 55 seats to be won.
its impossible to look at everybody who didn’t win, and with Jennings looking at the councillors who stood down and lost, I wanted to take the time to look at some of the candidates who didn’t win so you don’t have to. Continue reading “See you next time?”
In which Lia Mandaracas and Alexandra Chatfield look at the impact closing Sure Start centres has had across Medway..
Part 1 / Lia Mandaracas
Sure Start, since its introduction in 1999 transformed the lives of families with under 5s. By 2009 there were over 3600 centres with most of them concentrated in disadvantaged areas. In mid-2016, Medway Council made significant savings with a staffing restructure and reduced sessions, which came with assurances that this was the only way to save the full provision. By early 2017 they proposed closing all centres in favour of four “super hubs” that would serve wide areas and 0-19 rather than 0-5. Due to public pressure they relented slightly and created the super hubs with satellite centres to run some sessions, although these centres no longer had continuity of staff or full time opening hours. I thought I would take a look at the effects on service users, the impact on the councils Key Performance Indicators, and Ofsted results compared to other parts of the country.
For background here are two speeches I gave to the council drawing on evidence from other councils to speculate on what closing Medway Sure Starts might mean.