The report on the future of children centres debated by councillors at the full meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council yesterday confirmed that with a growing population we need to be doing much more, not less, to support early years children and their families and that it needs to be open to all not just focused on those identified by the system as being in most need of help.

But despite nearly two thirds of 519 South Cambridgeshire respondents to the public consultation being against the Conservative plans for our children centres and the Lib Dem petition against the cuts reaching 4,000 the Tory county councillors voted to press ahead against widespread public opposition.

Cutting some £900,000 from the budget for children centres they claimed to be increasing funding by 7%!  They’re cutting management posts in the children centres but these aren’t pen-pushers – they provide the hands on experienced guidance and support which will now be lost.

None of this would have been necessary if the county council had agreed to the Lib Dem budget two years ago which county council financial officers accept would now be giving it an extra £10 million to spend on front line services.