Children’s centres could be closed after the council announced the launch of a consultation on use.

The move comes just months after Sutton Council announced a 14 per cent funding cut to 
children’s centres in the 2015-16 
budget. 

A decision on the future of the centres would come into effect from April 2016.
At the time of the original announcement the council said stripping £175,000 from the budgets of Sutton’s 14 children’s centre would come from “budgetary underspend and as such will have no impact on children” and gave assurances it would lead to no job losses or changes to direct services. 

Questioned about long-term plans, a spokesman for the council said: “Every council department is reviewing their future service provision and how they have to enable the council to set a balanced budget. 

“We are currently focusing our efforts on making decisions for the budget of 2014-15. 

“No decisions have been made beyond this.”

The latest announcement has been slammed by Sutton and Cheam’s Labour parliamentary candidate Emily Brothers.

She said: “I’m appalled by the duplicity of Liberal Democrats. 

“When I challenged them previously, they came out with the usual procrastination. 

“They failed yet again to be honest with local people.

“We were told that the 14 per cent salami cut would make children’s centres fit for purpose, and services would be protected as a result.

“In the background they were planning closures all along.”

A council spokesman said: “We were very clear in the report to September’s children, family and education committee that the budget cut of 14 per cent to children’s centres was an “interim measure” and we were ‘developing a revised children’s centre strategy and options appraisal for the future 
provision of early help services through children’s centres', which would be ready in December.

“Not only have we done exactly this, but we have now started a major consultation into those options for future provision, including a survey and workshop at every one of our children’s centres.”

The council said that, unlike other authorities, it had retained its children’s centres for as long as possible, but now faced an almost impossible choice given the £40m of cuts central Government has imposed on its five-year budget until 2019.

Sutton Council funds 14 centres that all deliver a full range of services at a cost of £1.3m a year.
The consultation offers a number of reduced service options, with the council’s preferred option to be a single hub offering most services, with further provision at three “spoke” centres.

Workshops and an online survey will be used to collect residents opinions between January and March 2015, about the impact on families and what the other options for support that would be provided if there were fewer children’s centres in the borough.