A HIDDEN privatisation agenda lies behind plans currently under public consultation over closure of children’s centres in West Somerset and other parts of the county, West Somerset Labour Party said this week.

The party accused Somerset County Council of conducting the consultation while it had already held a “soft market testing event” on September 26 to which external service providers were invited.

Kathrine See, West Somerset Labour secretary who is campaigning to save the children’s centres in Minehead and Watchet, said: “I feel that the people of Somerset are being totally misled. The consultation is nothing more than a sham.

“There is now damning evidence to show that SCC has every intention of outsourcing children’s services and no intention of keeping the children’s centres.

“It is even stating a date in 2019 by which the privatised services should be in place while on the surface holding a consultation to canvass public opinion. This is outrageous.”

The council launched a public consultation at the end of September over proposals that would see the current 24 Sure Start children’s centres in the county become a network of eight family centres, as part of joining up a number of services for children aged 0 to 19.

It said it needed to focus spending on staff and support rather than buildings while making sure that at a time when councils had less money, services reached people who needed them most.

Full report in the Free Press (Oct 27)