24 March - When is a cut not a cut? When it’s a re-modelling
We’ve had efficiency savings, festivals abandoned, grants cut, libraries
closed, prices up across the board, selling the borough to the highest bidder and now
services are up for remodelling. Any euphemism will do when there is no money left.
There are currently 14 children’s centres in Bexley, ten big ones and four
little ones. It is proposed that only six provide the full range of services in
future and eight would respond to local need only.
There is
a council web page to cover the proposals more comprehensively which
includes a link to yet another consultation. Parents who think they may be
affected should take a look.
This is perhaps an appropriate moment to mention that I am currently in contact
with three parents who have lost children to Bexley council's ‘early
intervention’ regime and
the Rhys Lawrie case gets more interesting almost
by the day. None of it is appropriate for the blog, at least not yet, but these
issues and others have pushed email responses well into arrears again. And BiB
is pretty much a single handed operation and sometimes there are other things
that simply must be done.