The fight to reverse a Kent County Council decision to axe its £222,127 contract with Millmead Family Hub and a £204,302 contract with Seashells hub in Sheerness has taken a step forward after a unanimous vote to re-examine the issue at full council.
KCC Cabinet member for integrated children’s services, Cllr Sue Chandler, had approved the contract cuts – due to come in force from April 1- earlier this month but has faced revolt from other members, including her own Tory colleagues.
The decision was then called in by Labour councillor Mel Dawkins, backed by Independent Cllr Barry Lewis, to be re-examined by members of the county’s scrutiny committee.
Cllr Chandler had approved the contract cuts in a bid to save KCC £426,429 per year. In the case of Millmead, the proposal was for families to use Margate Family Hub (formerly Six Bells), Northdown Road Family Hub (formerly known as Quarterdeck) and Cliftonville Family Hub (formerly Children’s Centre) to access KCC funded services.
In November the decision on ending commissioned services at both Family Hubs was postponed following representations from Cllr Lewis who put forward a recommendation to delay the decision until new government funding was finalised.
Despite the postponement and a one-off £4.1m extra family hub funding award from government, the decision was made to end the contracts. Millmead was awarded around £40k Healthy Living Centre funds for public health activities instead.
But at the scrutiny meeting yesterday (January 29) crunch points raised were the figures for how many people used each of the centres, with footfall at Millmead being shown as more each month than all the surrounding hubs, combined with costs per client averaging £318 at Millmead and £1k at the other hubs; There was also wide concern that financial data had not been shared and questions over whether the correct figures had been used to make a decision.
Further concerns were raised over why £4.1m government funding granted to KCC specifically for family hubs was not being used for Millmead and Seashells.
Cllr Jackie Meade, who led on why the decision needed to be re-examined, raised a number of issues, including why the under threat services were being cut when they appeared to be best value for money in terms of funding and the number of people through the doors.
She said the decision to cut the contract was “not safe” due to the lack of financial analysis and the failure to look at extra costs such as travel reimbursement for Millmead families forced to take a 3 mile round trip to use the KCC hubs.
She raised the issue of the lack of information about legal advice and questioned why the contracts could not be extended when they had been before.
Cllr Barry Lewis also raised client numbers with Millmead seeing 120 people a month compared to 16 at Margate and Nortdown hubs and just eight at Cliftonville hub.
Questions were raised over why the agenda and decision documents did not show that both Millmead and Seashells had offered a reduced price for contracted services. Millmead is asking for £165k (down from £223k) and Seashells has requested £150k (down from £204k) meaning a saving of more than £110k.
The decision to cut the Millmead contract was also questioned by Thanet county councillors Ros Binks and Lesley Game.
Cllr Binks raised the reduced funding being requested by Millmead and questioned the logic of arguments that county council staffing would mean better consistency, again highlighting the greater footfall at Millmead compared to other hubs.
She said: “People are voting with their feet,” adding: “If you want to reduce take up of services then closing Millmead is an excellent idea.”
Cllr Game suggested the better option would be to shut the much less used Cliftonville hub.
Independent councillor Mike Whiting also questioned why the £4.1m government funding was not being used for Millmead and Seashells, suggesting Cllr Sue Chandler simply phoned the government minister to ask if some of the money could be used for that purpose.
He asked why the reduced fee requests had not been included in any agenda or decision papers, he questioned the statement that the Cabinet member could not legally extend the contracts – pointing out she had done exactly this in 2022.
He added: “We have not had the transparency in this committee to fully understand why the decision has been made.”
Cllr Chandler defended the decision saying the figures for use of each centre were not valid because Millmead and Seashells provide other services in addition to the family hub contract.
She said the offer of outreach provision from both centres and the healthy living funding for Millmead was aimed at keeping the centres sustainable whilst Sheerness and Thanet were still being allocated the greatest sums of family hub funding across the districts.
At the end of a lengthy meeting it was agreed the decision should be sent back to Cabinet today (January 30) and then on to a special meeting of the full council to be re-examined.
Following the meeting Cllr Barry Lewis said: “History was made. It is only the second time in KCC’s history that Scrutiny has asked for an item to be brought back to an emergency meeting of full council.
“For the third time the decision to close Millmead has been rebutted unanimously.
“Cabinet member Sue Chandler is facing a major defeat and has not got the support of councillors, including from her own party.
“After six months, I am confident that the battle to save Millmead will be successful.”
Millmead ward councillor Jack Packman, who has also been at the forefront of the campaign to retain family hub services at the centre, said: “The Overview and Scrutiny meeting at Kent County Council delivered a significant victory for the campaign to protect local family hubs.
“The committee unanimously voted to take the issue to full council, reinforcing strong support for keeping these vital community services in place.
“However, the battle is not over. We remain committed to working closely with the Millmead Family Hub and the wider community to ensure local voices continue to be heard.
“KCC must be held accountable for decisions that affect our most vulnerable residents. This result demonstrates the power of standing together.
“A big thank you to Cllr Jackie Meade for calling it in and my Labour colleagues at Kent County Council for listening to the community here in Dane Valley, who constructed a well balanced argument for why this is the wrong decision which, was received with unanimous cross party support.
“We must maintain momentum to safeguard these essential services for the future. A huge well done to everyone involved in this important fight.”
East Thanet MP Polly Billington also said the reprieve was welcome but the fight continues.
She said: “I’d like to congratulate my Labour colleagues on Kent County Council for managing to persuade the council to reconsider their appalling decision to close the Millmead Children’s Centre. But while we now have a reprieve, the fight to save these vital services isn’t over.
“The reality is Conservative-controlled Kent County Council have run out of excuses, because they have been given more than £4 million by the government this year to fund family hubs. If they wanted to, they could find the money to maintain the vital services at Millmead in the place where people need them most – at the heart of a community that is home to some of the most deprived families in the whole of Kent.”
