Children’s centres in two of the county’s most deprived areas face an uncertain future as Kent County Council strives to find savings of £100 million over the next two years.
But the potential loss of the Family Hubs at Millmead at Margate and Seashells in Sheerness could deliver a devastating blow to those who need them most, as Local Democracy Reporter Simon Finlay and Gabriel Morris discovered…
Down the cool corridors on one of the hottest days of an otherwise forgettable summer, the sound of children at play is strangely calming.
There are baby noises amongst the chattering of mothers and staff busying themselves here and there.
Beyond the serene ordinariness, there is a pervasive sense of kindness and, of course, love.
The centres are built on foundations of hope, good intentions and, crucially, the common denominator – poverty.
On one level, these are indeed pleasant places to congregate, amuse children and provide common sense advice to parents getting by, day to day.
In some cases, especially in Margate, they help ensure vulnerable people do not go hungry.
Yet the one thing that allows them to survive is also what will shut services down – money.
For Seashells, on the edge of housing just outside Sheerness’s town centre, the loss of £200,000 Kent County Council (KCC) funding does not necessarily spell the end, as it has many other aspects to its business model. The service to parents and children will be lost but the centre will continue to operate.
An hour down the road at Millmead in Margate, a building perched stolidly on the flanks of the Dane Valley housing estate, there’s a resignation that if KCC’s plans come to pass, it almost certainly will be curtains.
Stoic and realistic, manager Jan Collins rates her chances of overturning the KCC proposal as “about 5%”.
She has 27 staff and seven volunteers whose roles are likely to be under threat, not to mention the 62 nursery places, unconnected to the Family Hub, which will also have to close. In short, the entire operation will shut down to save KCC about £225,000.
The “pantry” at the rear where a foodbank and subscription food service operates from will also be at risk.
But Jan, with the help of local KCC member, Cllr Barry Lewis, is mobilising a team to go door to door to get local people to fill in the consultation questionnaire provided by the council.
Cllr Lewis says: “This is going to be a disaster for the local community, no doubt about it.”
They’re not looking for a fight but hope that power of reasoned persuasion may prompt a rethink.
Jan adds: “Everyone knows we are going to close. We’re realistic but we have to get as many local people to engage in the consultation as we can.”
Closure, she argues, will merely cost more in the long run to other services, be it social services, the NHS or the police.
A shining example of the good the place does is Chloe Mathews (pictured), who as a troubled teenager fell pregnant at 16. She attended Millmead as a child, ended up as a volunteer and more recently as a paid member of staff.
“I cried to my line manager when I found out,” says the single mother-of-three.
“When I was younger I became a bit of a crazy wild child but this place was always here to help. I was accepted here.
“If it goes, the impact will be massive to this community.”
KCC has been able to offer alternatives elsewhere but Chloe doubts many Millmead users would have the wherewithal to get to them.
She adds: “The consultation process is pretty much just going through the motions, if I’m honest. It’s heartbreaking.”
On a guided tour of the nursery, Jan explains it is not just the children coming here who are anxious, hungry or poorly turned out, it is the parents too.
“This is what poverty and deprivation looks like.”
Acting Family Hub manager at Seashells, Ian Townsend-Blazier because Seashells and Millmead are externally funded, he said both are “sitting ducks” for KCC cuts.
Most parents and staffers seem to think the loss of the centres for the sake of a £426,000 saving is too big a price to pay.
Yet KCC is staring into the abyss. The Local Government Information Unit regards it as a “perfectly well-run council” but under-funded from the national pot.
Council insiders will tell you that they are all too aware they have to find ways of making savings, even at the expense of services they would rather keep.
One says: “Look, do we want to shut these Family Hubs down? No, of course not. They do a fantastic job – we know that. But we’re backed into a corner we don’t want to be in.
“We’re doing our best to provide the same services to people in a different way but for a lot of people, that’s not what they want.”
The next two years could prove critical for KCC’s survival. If the authority cannot balance the books and provide the services, such as adult social care, it has to by law, then the alternative is bankruptcy.
For the users of Millmead and Seashells, the race is on to provide the justification for keeping them. The consultation runs out on September 22.
Sue Chandler, cabinet member for integrated children’s services says in a statement: “Following the introduction of our new Family Hub model across Kent last year, the management cost for these two commissioned services creates a duplication and KCC is also paying for the management of the in-house services on offer at KCC Family Hubs across the Districts of Swale and Thanet.
“By not renewing these contracts when they naturally come to an end in March 2025, we can make a much-needed efficiency saving whilst continuing to provide essential services for families and young people in these areas.”
For Chloe Mathews, as she contemplates her own future, her message is clear: “Millmead has been a lifeline for me and for many others like me. Please, please don’t shut us down.”
Have your say
The consultation will run for 8 weeks from today (Tuesday 30 July) until 22 September 2024
For full details of the proposal and to have your say visit: www.kent.gov.uk/familyhubsconsultation
For queries or requests for hard copies, email [email protected]
For alternative formats, email [email protected] or call 03000 421553 (text relay service number 18001 03000 421553).
in deed ths is a big mistake
What a well written report, I like the spacing!
Yes, almost like a gripping novel!
Well what can you expect from KCC? It started as a house with two washing machines for the people who were struggling, and grew from there. They have already cut the bus services. What we need to do is fire the incompetent management, reduce the number of managers and get someone in who knows what they are doing.
Fine.
But then, where does the huge amount of necessary money come from?
I don’t often agree with Barry Lewis but congratulations to him in his efforts to save the services this centre offers. All Thanet KCC councillors should be joining him in this fight – regardless of their politics – as this is something for the community and politics has nothing to do with it.
There must be so many other ways of cutting back KCC expenses and overheads to fund the continuation of this vital centre in an extremely deprived area. Consider just the consequences of so many losing their jobs and then having to claim benefits.
I do have a bit of a problem understanding how you end up as a single mother of three, by all means a lack of judgement may result in a first pregnancy , but a 2nd and 3rd, plus where is the contribution and support from the father/s?
The only age given is when she became pregnent the first time no mention of age now? Does she have the benefit of social housing? What training/ education has she pursued, does she work, Outside the comfort zone of the centre?
It’s all very well wanting to give lots to very many, but it all comes from what can be raised via taxes , and the money raised has to be shared between all those wanting funding, those requirements don’t seem to ever shrink and as such the tax payers largess needs to be used as efficiently as possible. So if the millmead centre is to keep its funding , which other area is to have its own reduced or removed?
Making life too easy for people leads to that being the norm and gives no incentive to try and improve your lot.
In the meantime all of us that work have our tax allowances frozen , we pay more in all the little stealth taxes, have our ability to save for retirement reduced and no doubt will have our pockets picked in the autumns statement.
We keep hearing the mantra “those with the broadest shoulders should pay more” all very well but never a mention as to how those same people built up their shoulders and no discussion as to what those efforts are worth? If trying becomes something rewarded with too little , the decision not to try becomes much easier.
You sound like the editor of the Daily Mail, blimey what a mean selfish individual you are. You know quite clearly that the broad shoulders that are referred to isn’t you and me but the number of billionaires that have made a fortune since Boris the Horrible gave them every opportunity to stitch this country up. Really looking forward to this government going after the covid thieves and the non doms, that should be enough to re open the Surestart scheme plus.
Tosh, there isn’t enough to be taken from the “billionaires” the top 10% pay 60% of income tax, to ne in the top 10% you need to be earning just 65k a year, you only need 100k to be in the top 2%.
Now look into the total package effectivly you’d be on if you’re in social housing , in receipt of benefits and working 16 hours a week, with all the extras that triggers in terms of dental, childcare, prescriptions, school meals etc etc, it all adds upto to a significant salary if you had to earn that from a normal job.
Plus the truly wealthy will just up and leave the country taking their wealth with them, leaving a gap that those who can’t do this have to fill.
Look at the story behind James Dyson deciding to leave the UK and the be efits to the country that go with him. Then add on all the money he donates to his local area and the “university” he runs to encourage engineering excellence, all extra spending for the good of the nation, but outside of his direct taxes.
Remember Sir Kiers description of a working person in the election campaign- someone that works but doesn’t have the financial reserves to write a cheque for an unexpected expense- which rather suggests those that have worked hard and saved a bit are no longer seen a proper working people.
Try doing some research and looking at what the numbers so casually thrown about really mean. Labour have ditched the levelling up mantra of the tories not because it was tory policy but because they’ll be going the much easier route of levelling down.
It’s these frustrations that largely lie behind the unrest of recent days, the events in Stockport, Leeds, Whitechapel, Southend. Events that triggered reactions , where too many feel society has turned against them. Nothing makes people more irate than feeling that they’re being taxed and lives made harder to support others. All very ugly and details distorted by both sides to further their agendas.
There’s a need for decent unbiased data to determine the real truth not sets of figures manipulated to create the preferred narrative.
BY all means go after the covid thieves , all of them, quite how you’ll track down the criminal gangs operating from overseas that abused the covid loan scheme is beyond me, or all the businesses that cashed in and then disappeared here. The amount stolen in those schemes will dwarf the amounts in headlines for the PPE scandal, hopefully Mohne will be investigated properly and dealt with accordingly.
Do you support the manner in which anyone with assets needs to fund their own care? Why should they be punished for being more succesful and having paid all that was due during their lives but at the end be treated so differently to anyone with no assets but accessing the same care? It’s effectively privatising the nhs / social care but you don’t hear the indignant howls from the indignant left.
Just in case you don’t look into James Dyson,
Paid 156 million in tax in one year
Gave 6 million to the local primary school
Funds the “Dyson Campus”
If he does leave and takes his business interests with him , how much has the country lost and what replaces it? Just one example. People like this need encouraging not taxing until they leave.
My sister became a single mother of six children – because her partner died in an accident while working to provide for his family. So, don’t judge without knowing the circumstances.
Then give more information or don’t provide examples provided solely to pursue an agenda, as my question regarding support shows i’ve not assumed anything regarding the circumstances. So many things in life have more devil in the detail than the curated summary often tries to suggest.
Many tens of thousands of children over the last 23 years have become successful adults due to help of the centre.pull this safety net and the cost will cost millions in increased pressure on doctors surgeries, a and e hospital waiting times,police coping with anti social behaviour, mental health providers. Closing this centre is a ticking timebomb
Care to justify those figures? If we say many is 5, that’s over 2000 children a year from this one centre , is it really the largest education establishment in thanet? Especially given you’d expect each to be there on average more than one of those 23 years. Which given that figure is around 1.5% of thanets total population in the last census is again not really credible.
What is the centres actual daily capacity? How many of these children come from workless households? I’d wager similar results and more ongoing good would result from getting people back into work, reducing the need for inward miigration to fill employment vacancies, which in turn would reduce the pressures on the services you name.
Any chance of real numbers rather than conjuring up random numbers to support your view?
They serve 1,000 people a month, fact, that’s why shutting it will be a ticking time bomb. I as a county councillor am a coparate parent and resent being called a liar by someone who refuses to print their name and is a revolting reactionary keyboard warrior, shame on you
IThank you for some clarification , i can believe they serve 1000 people a month as that would translate to around 40 people a day, which unless those are totally new people each day doesn’t translate to your 10’s of thousands over 23 years.
So lets say that 1000 translates to 100 individuals visiting 10 times a month, and they do so for 6 months, so 200 individuals a year giving 4600 over your 23 uears a long way from the many 10’s of thousands you gave. I’d also suggest that in that 1000 a month a reasonable number are adults, so lets reduce the the 4600 by 20% which leaves us with 3680 and i’d guess that the hub doesn’t have a 100% success rate so lets reduce that by another 25% , leaving us with a very generous 2760 children helped to become successful adults, though it would be reasonable to assume many of those would have done so anyway. Which is much more plausible and way under your initial assertion.
At which point did i call you a liar? I merely asked if you’d care to justify the number you gave, and i later suggested you’d concocted a figure that supported your position. Which seems to be the case from the above.
Having given a number , i’ve made a few reasonable assumptions in respect of that number and come up with a more believable ( but very generous) estimate of the number of children who’ve become successful adults as a result of the centre’s efforts.
As for my being a keyboard warrior, hardly just someone who can see that sometimes numbers put forward by those purportedly representing us are hardly credible and can surely only have been given to give a misleading impression as to the centres success.
As someone who’s been selected to represent your area are you not duty bound to give your constituents factual information rather than whatever you feel will give you the result you see fit?
I’m not trying to persuade anyone of anything rather try to ensure the information put into the public realm is accurate as such there’s no need for anyone to know who i am.
Given your position and influence in public life would it be too bold to suggest that perhaps the shame is yours for the assertions you’ve made, both in respect of the innacurate numbers you’ve given and your accusations towards myself?
Mr Lewis – because someone has different opinions to you and rattles your cage is called democracy. Where does corporate parent come from! I suggested on previous thread that £5000 reduction in County Coucillers allowance would provided sufficient funds to keep these places open. Still leaves £10000 per individual. Shame on you and where does poster call you a liar?
Fedupb, no name so obviously no point in answering another keyboard warrior who does not have the bottle to put their actual name to their comments.are you a bot?by the way all county councillor s are by law corporate parents and police checked known as drb
Mr Lewis – No point in replying to me? Regardless of my name status, or opinions, you still have not answered why £5000 per County Councillor could be allocated to solving this problem! Still leaves each of you with £10000 + expenses. My pension does not equate to this figure! Thank you for pointing out definition of Corporate parents. I see that this position relates to children in care of KCC.
Fedupb, no name so obviously no point in answering another keyboard warrior who does not have the bottle to put their actual name to their comments.are you a bot?
Cllr Lewis.
“Many tens of thousands” is a very broad number. I’m sure I could find out the exact figures myself but as you appear to feel strongly about this issue. Would it not just be far easier for you to share them here? By not doing so almost creates more doubt about their validity.
Mr Brown – I think Mr Lewis and mathematics do not sit well. I totally agree with your post. Glibly throwing unproven figures around is unprofessional to say the least and often causes doubt.
That’s rather cowardly not to reply to a genuine question. It’s an old trick to call people bots/key board warriors etc. and avoid scrutiny and just flannel. Many people who use a keyboard and the internet, and also have all sorts of skills and jobs have uncovered all sorts of real concerns. Elected officials are paid to have a public identity. Private individuals aren’t. I hope all hub staff are professional in the future anyway. I won’t debate it online but I’ve sent on my concerns to the government hub feedback group.
Mr Lewis – you do yourself no favours in not replying to my simple question. But, did I expect you to attack to avoid answering a genuine question? Shame on you for your unfounded accusations concerning me which are not professional Grow up please.
I have lived and still live opposite the millmead centre and can definitely state that the figures stated are wrong.also there are 3 other places within walking distance from millmead so close the place it’s been a total waste of money…
The centre almost certainly keeps detailed records of who uses which of the services it offers and those offered by other groups that use the premises.
It’s how budgets are determined and often a requirement attached to funding, done to help ensure that money is spent as efficiently as possible.
Councillor Lewis has stated that the centre serves 1000 people a month, no detail, but it would probably be safe to assume that this in terms of total number of “engagements’, but the article states there are 62 nursery places, the centre is open 5 days a week so has places for 20×62 such “ engagements” alone but at 1240 this on its own is obviously under utilised given the 1000 a month fact. Add in the other services offered and one would be excused for thinking the centre is woefully under utilised.
As a result rationalisation and efficiency is hardly a surprise
From the comments in the article it would seem that those working there accept these realities and it’s why they don’t feel there’s much chance of overturning the decision/proposal.
Yes,I do like the names that our keyboard warriors use, when it reality their views are in opposition to their names.Undemocratic, democrat.the graceless tactician and of course the angry Fedup.
Their message is the poor are poor because they are feckess, improvident, stupid individuals,who should find salvation by being thrifty, hardworking and preferably be clean living.
One only needs to read Dickens, and the media since Victorian times, to see those views expressed time and time again.
In the last 14 years we have created a situation where work is precarious,poorly paid, an insufficient to meet the costs of daily life because of corporate greed, rampant landlordism, and indifference and incompetence at the top.
Many of those attending good banks are in work, but as in York in 1900, when Seebohm Rowntree carried his survey,there is insufficient income to sustain a reasonable living.People are forced to make choices, that our 3 equestrians of the apocalypse fail to recognise, because they have their heads stuck in their bourgeois bubble world of privilege.
It’s not the the Communards of the Tax payers alliance trying to burn down hotels and fight the police,it is racists led by offshore terrorists,using remote control to generate riot and crime for their own ends.
Barry Lewis is quite right, if you want to produce good citizens, especially in deprived areas, sure start is a sure fire way of doing so
I would rather see my taxes funding sure start centres than any number of white elephant transport and infrastructure projects
And you are of course welcome to comment as any of the rest of us.
I do note that you make no comment about Councillor Lewis’s cavalier attitude towards numbers and accuracy, a man in such a position should be putting forward accurate information on which we could all make a proper decision, not absurdly inflated numbers as he’s done.
Like any other politician these days , the facts seem beyond his grasp, what hope is there for a nation governed by those who feel fit to mislead and deflect in order to push through the things their various political ideologies feel fit.
That we have a system that values work not on the work itself but on the circumstances of the person doing it ,is always going to distort the economy and society, as well as removing many incentives ,for those that benefit from said system , to improve their lot in life, is something i’ll never comprehend.
Just as we’ve adopted a system where working a couple of hpurs a week means you are employed rather than unemplyed, statistics should be compiled on the basis of how many full time equivalent employed/ unemployed there are and see how we can reduce our reliance on migrant labour.
Having been someone you’d no doubt include in your “rampant landlordism” i’ve seen countless examples of those who have no intention of working or contributing to society, we most certainly need a social safety net but not to the extent it encompasses the millions it now does.
And of course had the private rented sector have killed as many tenants as the social rented providers we’d all have been strung up, but the social sector just carries on with no one being held to account for their decisions and management. So perhaps the rampant landlordism you speak of is by far the better option for tenants.
It remains to be seen if the new government makes any improvements other than impoverishing the nation further to subsidise many more people.
You may not like the things i say, but at least i do so without resorting to the playground retorts used by Councillor Lewis when his innacuracies are called out.
I forgot the “bourgeois bubble of privelege “ , pretty sure my life story doesn’t fall into that. But then according to Sir Kier i’m not a working person either. What a fool i’ve been for spending so much time at work in far flung places , to make a decent life for myself purely through manual work and lots of effort.
If i’d have objected to walking a mile and half to access free services , i’d have achieved nothing. There must surely be a lesson in that somewhere. Or maybe i should have joined the ranks of those that receive more for their life choices of doing nothing .
Thank you to all of the hundreds of adults and children who have filled out the consultation in the first week of the 8 week period, the community is fighting back i love margate
How many of those responses have been made having listened or read some of your less than factual statements and as a result should surely be invalid?
Mr Lewis – where do you get your numbers from? I hope the children were able to comprehend what they were told/signing for? What unbiased advice were they given? We will never know answers to my polite questions. Still no reply from you regarding my suggestion of using some of KCC Councillors allowance to fund these centres.
I get my figures from millmead centre figures which are on their website, last financial year they had 15810 clients equals over 1200 per month so up from previous years .FACT not lies as my reactionary trolls claim
Cllr Lewis.
I cannot find a website for the Centre. A link would be helpful. The only reference I can find that has the number you quoted is on their Facebook page. From a post that was curiously added earlier today. That states.”WOW. During 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024.
We had 15810 people, walk through our doors!“
No clarification if that was just for the service’s that is being duplicated in the 3 other centres within 1 and a half miles that KCC provide or the total number that use the centre as a whole.
Also the dates given are not the financial year that you state as “Fact” not lies.
It would be so much better for your campaign if you could be less candid with your answers and just share the relevant information and exactly where these facts can be clarified.
Quite a few local government bodies ( including at least some parts of TDC) work on an April to March financial year, quite why we have such an odd system is beyond me , but i. Assume there must be some sort of reasoning. Though why local government can’t use the same system as the rest of us is even more perplexing.
Good morning Barry, thank you for coming up with an exact figure for a given period. Given it’s very unlikey over 10% of Thanets population would enter the building in any one hear, would it be fair to assume this figure is the numbers of visits rather than unique individuals?
The centre is open 5 days a week and i’m assuming is shut on bank holidays. So open 252 days a year , meaning on average 63 people cross the threshold each day. Whilst very few of these , if any, would be attending each day, the centre could easily be seen to offering help to a really quite small number of children , which would make that assistance very expensive and as such moving it to alternative venues makes sense.
Unless of course we are enter the world of make believe where hugely inefficient expenditure is seen as necessary if it helps just a few people.
Life has become extraordinarily expensive in the last few years for us all, i doubt very few on here haves noticed and needed as a result to watch their budget closely, is it really too much to expect the public sector to do the same. Or can we expect Ms. Reeves to unfreeze tax allowances/rates and bring them back to where they should be?
Does this include Staff?
Would a parent dropping kids off and later collecting them count as 1 or 2 such visits?
Are the various nhs interactions included in those visits?
Cleaners, maintenance staff, any other non service user visits included?
Is the nursery included in these numbers?
There are many ways to boost numbers, would you be so kind as to find the figures for each of the actual public service offerings the centre offers. It would not seem unreasonable given your original wildly inaccurate suggestion that “many tens of thousands “ had been helped by the the centre.
What is it with those inhabiting the political bubble that means they feel they can tell the electorate they are meant to representing anything they feel fit, and when they are questioned accuse people of calling them liars. You’ve been called no such thing , rather its been pointed out that your initial figures are patently absurd and had zero effort put into finding accurate information. ( any chance i could do my tax return on that basis?)
I and i’m sure many others would appreciate a breakdown of your numbers, they most surely exist as they’ll have been a large part of the information on which KCC have decided the service is unaffordable.
No need to start hurling your playground epiphets , you’ve made it clear that you don’t like your statements being questioned ( despite being obviously erroneous and which you must have been aware, but still chose to quote them) if pointing out such disgraceful behaviour by those in public office makes me a “revolting reactionary keyboard warrior” i’m quite happy to wear that hat.
Likewise if you knowingly made erroneous claims to support your position then you have effectively picked up the other hat you’ve cast at others, if the numbers you gave were a result of laziness then again if reflects badly on the office you hold.
Barry your figures don’t add up at all, seems like your using untrue facts, looks like staff are bumping up the figures to try and save a place that does not equal value for money. Labour lies just the same as Tories
So you are now calling staff at millmead centre liars wven those figures are audited by kcc. Pathetic smear on dedicated hard working staff
As a Country councillor you will have easy access to the results of these KCC audits Cllr Lewis.
I ask you one simple question. Please have the decency to give me one simple straight answer.
In the last financial year, how many individuals used the Family Hub service provided at Millmead. Just the Family Hub, not the whole centre.
Mr Paul Brown
Mr Lewis – the only pathetic individual in this debate/concern regarding this Centre is you. Your evasive figures, figures plucked from air, failing to answer reasonable questions and general rudeness to posters is evidence of ignorance and lack of good manners! I still await your view on my suggestion that KCC Councillors donate £5000 of their allowance which would go a long way to solving underfunding of both Centres.
Barry Lewis you calling people and me liars and trolls is unprofessional and just shows your mentality incapable of a healthy discussion. I have not called anybody a liar I have just stated your/millmead centre figures don’t add up. You yourself said 1000 a month now it’s 1200 a months. As I said I live opposite and have never seen that amount of people use this centre daily. So make of it what you will, I have had my say and stand by it 100%. Calling people names is not the way to go, childish behaviour is not what a councillor should be portraying. Grow up or retire
Canvessed your road today with others hope you notices the many window posters put up by your neighbours who care about their community.
Yes I have noticed they walked up my path stood at the door then walked away , did not knock or ring the doorbell and nothing through the letterbox. As for the posters there are a few, maybe a dozen if lucky. As for your new 60 a day figure that only shows that the nursery placements of which there are 62 are being used. What about the other service’s that are there. Still not showing a big need for the place and trying to defer from answering people’s questions just shows how one sided you are. Tell me is there a course you councillors go on teaching you how not to answer the questions put in front of you honestly and openly, because you all do the same thing?? Think that your always right when clearly your not
Day 1 of the politicians training, – deflection , evasion , misdirection and misinterpretation.
Unfortunately they all do it so we’re stuck with a system that just won’t deal in facts , logic and clarity, along with in sufficient conviction in their own opinions in the face of reasonable questioning and so avoid honest debate.
Cllr Barry Lewis, it is obvious your passion for this centre, but why is it wrong for people to ask pertinent questions regarding it?
As a Kent County Councillor for this area, it should be very easy for you to ascertain this information.
It is quite unprofessional of you to make rude remarks about the people on this site asking such.
You, more than anybody, are in a position to find out these details.
Why don’t you do this?