More services as Bedford children's centres change to family hubs - despite concerns over cuts

With building costs rising by 44 per cent since 2021, councillor Jane Walker explained that the council has had to prioritise funding services over maintaining underused buildings.

“Some of them have got sessions a couple of times a week, Kingbrook’s has got one hour a week of sessions because literally we can’t afford to staff them,” councillor Walker said.

“I’ve had parents say these children centre buildings are never open and they’re right, we don’t have the resources to open them when there isn’t a session taking place.

“We just can’t afford to keep having empty buildings standing around, particularly at the moment when we’ve got schools crying out for extra space for before and after school clubs.”

The solution, she said, is to expand outreach services and provide more flexible support to families.

Rather than focusing on fixed locations, Family Hubs will increase overall service provision, with a 21 per cent rise in sessions and 740 additional outreach hours, councillor Walker said.

“We’re not cutting services – we’re increasing them. We now have the flexibility to send staff where they’re actually needed, rather than expecting parents to come to a centre,” councillor Walker explained.

Adding that the outreach teams will be available to visit existing community groups, such as toddler sessions and faith-based meetups, to offering advice, parenting support, and access to key services in an environment the parents feel comfortable with.

“Parents told us they want support to fit their lifestyle. Many don’t want to travel to a set location at a fixed time. The Family Hubs model allows us to bring services to them,” she said.

The council provides parenting courses, but councillor Walker said this isn’t always convenient for the parents to attend

“Partly because they’re often in the evening, their child is in bed, they don’t want to get child care or get a babysitter in,” she said.

“The ones that we have been running online have been really busy, the in person ones not so much.

“Parents say they want more want more online stuff, so last autumn we launched our new website, so all the advice, all the parenting classes, everything is now available on that website so parents can do it at their own in their own time.”

Councillor Walker acknowledged that some residents are concerned about losing physical centres but said there has been a misunderstanding about what’s actually changing.

“We’ve been contacted by people worried we’re taking services away – but we’re actually increasing them. The budget that would have been spent on buildings is going into staffing and outreach,” she clarified.

A new Family Hub in the town centre is also set to open this summer, focusing on older children and teenagers, following feedback that young people needed their own dedicated space.

Councillor Walker said the council will continue to assess whether Family Hubs are meeting parents’ needs through regular needs assessments and direct feedback from families.

“This model gives us the flexibility to evolve and respond to what families actually need, rather than sticking to outdated systems,” she said.