Community Consultation Feedback Newsletter
Community Consultation Feedback Newsletter North Worksop Children’s Centre - Rhodesia
What? Nottinghamshire County Council’s (NCC) Early Childhood Service carried out a community consultation to gather views from local families and other interested people on possible changes to the use of the Children’s Centre Service building in Rhodesia.
The proposed change is for Haggonfields Primary& Nursery School, (part of the Southwell and Nottingham Multi Academy Trust) to take over the running of the building, so that more local children and their families can regularly use it.
Why? The Children’s Centre Service has changed, with most of the service now delivered in a family’s home or online. More children from aged 2 - 4 years are able to go to early years settings due to increases in childcare funding, so fewer group activities sessions are needed.
This means that some of our buildings are rarely used, so if a better use for them can be found, such as using them for childcare or handing them to the local school, we have looked at doing this. Whenever any changes to the Children’s Centre Service properties are considered, the County Council have a “duty to consult” with local communities to find out their views.
When and Where? The consultation took place on the Council’s online Consultation Hub for 6 weeks, from 7th December 2020 to 18th January 2021. North Worksop: Rhodesia Children’s Centre - Nottinghamshire County Council - Citizen Space.
Due to Covid, we could not carry out any face to face sessions, so we extended the consultation timescale from 2 to 6 weeks and the school helped us publicise it on their website, under both the “News” section and setting up a separate page with more information. https://www.haggonfields.co.uk/childrens-centreconsultation/. Haggonfields also printed out the questionnaire for parents who wanted to complete a paper copy.
The Children’s Centre Service contacted local families who were registered with them, to give them the link to the consultation and offer to print off a questionnaire to fill in, if they did not want to use the online survey. One of the CCS team is also a Rhodesia parent, so she also publicised the link to the consultation through informal networks including a local Facebook page (rather than the district wide CCS page).
The CCS team also advised the Healthy Families Team and the Midwifery Service, asking them to complete the questionnaire and promote to local families. Early Childhood Services also contacted local district and county councillors and sent it to the other services who use the building for their views.
We received ONE response via the online survey, from a local mum, and THREE responses via paper copies of the questionnaire – TOTAL OF 4 – all of which were from parents living locally, with at least one child under 5 years old, with some of the families also having over 5s too. There were no responses to the questionnaire from any professionals working in the area or community leaders, although several councillors did contact us by email.
All 4 (100%) agreed with the proposal to transfer the running of the Children’s Centre building to Haggonfields Primary and said that if the school were to take over the building and offer free early years sessions, their child would use it.
Three of the parents (75%) felt that Children’s Centre Services could be delivered in a variety of community buildings and family homes, with one (25%) not responding to that question.
Three parents (75%) felt that services could be delivered online (e.g. via ZOOM), with one of the parents saying, “I believe that most children’s services should be face to face where possible”. One parent did not respond to this question.
What next? Subject to Committee approval, we plan to continue to work with Haggonfields Primary School to transfer the building to them, ready for September 2021.
The Children’s Centre Service will continue from the other Children’s Centre buildings in Worksop at Gateford, Manton and Prospect Kilton along with services such as one to one Family Support, Let’s Play and Home Talk continuing to be offered in family homes, throughout the week. Due to Covid, we are also offering services virtually via ZOOM and TEAMS and we are putting lots of great activities on line via the Bassetlaw Children’s Centre Service Facebook page and on Notts Help Yourself at www.nottshelpyourself.org.uk/supportingyouandyourchild
For more information, please contact: Una Daniel, Children’s Centre Co-ordinator tel: 0115 9773758 email: una.daniel@nottscc.gov.uk or Diane Tinklin, Early Childhood Commissioning & Projects Manager tel: 0115 804 1221 email: diane.tinklin@nottscc.gov.uk