Save Ealing’s children’s centres!

A demonstration at Ealing Town Hall on 10 June condemned Ealing council’s plans to close ten of its 25 children’s centres. On 11 June, the council went ahead with the decision to close, while giving a partial reprieve for three centres. As the Save Ealing Children’s Centres Campaign says, this is “damage limitation”, not a victory.

The Council has ignored the strength of public opposition to the closures and the details of its consultation, which held no in-person meetings about eight of the nine centres closing.

The Council’s plan, which retains 15 centres but cuts £751,000 from the budget over two years, lacks a clear Outreach Plan or Early Help Strategy. Campaigners argue that these cuts — from a service costing just over £1 million annually — will have a serious impact on children, particularly in deprived areas.

Save Ealing Children’s Centres, a coalition of parents, professionals, the Trades Council, and community groups, is calling for the decision to be scrutinised and reversed.

Vowing to continue their campaign, they demand an Early Help offer that strengthens — not dismantles — the support systems children and families depend on. Labour members in Ealing should ask themselves whether a council set on continuing Tory austerity is the kind of leadership that should continue under a Labour government. Local Labour activists should urgently write and propose motions to their local parties against the cuts and call on Labour nationally to invest and restore funding to local government. More: saveealingchildrenscentres.wordpress.com