Overview
Executive summary
- Lincolnshire County Council have undertaken a statutory consultation on the future of St Christopher’s Children’s Centre in Boston and service delivery, following the closure of the building due to safety concerns
- a survey was open on Let’s talk Lincolnshire website from 5 November 2024 to 6 December 2024
- it was very widely promoted to partners, social media, staff and the public. Posters with a QR code were also produced and distributed. The information about the consultation (including posters) was available in six languages identified in the area
- two drop-in events to promote the consultation took place at Norfolk Lodge Children’s Centre in Boston on 12 and 21 November 2024
- overall, there were 300 visitors to the survey page of which, 22 gave responses
- all respondents (22, 100%) either lived or worked in the Boston area
- 16 respondents (16, 73%) selected making permanent the interim arrangement as their preferred option including:
- 14 respondents (14, 64%) who selected option one - to make permanent the interim arrangement to deliver services from nearby children's centres and provide outreach services in suitable locations
- two respondents (2, 9%) who selected option two - to make permanent the interim arrangement to deliver services from nearby children's centres
- six respondents (6, 27%) selected purchasing the St Christopher’s building and undertaking the necessary work to provide service there (option three), as their preferred option
- there were 19 comments. Those included:
- comments supporting the selected options
- suggestions with regards to alternative locations of potential outreach services
Introduction
Lincolnshire County Council has been running children’s centre services from St Christopher’s Church in Boston under a lease agreement. Offering early years activities and support for families. Services include:
- start for Life offer
- healthy child programme
- early support and learning provision
In December 2023 due to urgent roof repairs to the building, the children's centre services delivered from St Christopher’s Children’s Centre were moved to Carlton Road and Norfolk Lodge Children’s Centres as an interim measure whilst the landlord could address the issues.
St Christopher’s building now requires significant maintenance, and the landlord has, at this time, not agreed to the necessary works. As a result, we considered it unsafe to continue to deliver these services from this location at this current time.
As a local authority, we have a statutory duty to consult on the future of the children’s centre and how the services are delivered.
We published a page on Let’s talk Lincolnshire which explained:
- background information
- consultation options
The page also included useful links for help with:
- finding a children’s centre
- information on the Lincolnshire Family Service Directory which supports the Local Offer
- Lincolnshire's family hubs and the start for life programme. It provides information on useful local organisations and activities
- childcare and family support on the council website. It provides information and advice on children services in Lincolnshire
The results from the survey will be considered before a final decision is taken by executive member for children’s services.
Stakeholders
Public including:
- anyone who has a child aged 0 to 5 and currently lives in the St Christopher’s Children’s Centre catchment area
- staff and partner organisations delivering services from St Christopher’s Children’s Centre
Methodology
- a survey was open to the public on the homepage of Let’s talk Lincolnshire from 5 November 2024 to 6 December 2024
- a paper version of the survey was available on request or from Norfolk Lodge Children’s Centre
- the survey questions contained the proposed options for respondents to choose as their preferred option. Respondents had the opportunity to comment on the options or provide anything else they would like us to consider
- in addition, comments or reasons were sought on the overall impact of the proposed options on protected characteristics. We used the results to update the equality impact analysis document
- we asked in which capacity people were responding. For parents and carers of children aged 0 to 5 years old, we asked whether they had ever used the services at St Christopher’s Children’s Centre
- we also asked respondents to provide postcode of where they lived or worked to identify if they were in the relevant area
- promotion was carried out via various methods:
- direct email to identified stakeholders
- news release on Lincolnshire County Council website
- Let’s talk newsletter sent to all registered participants
- social media messages including Facebook and Nextdoor
- a poster which was available in various locations in Boston (it was available in six identified languages)
- two face-to-face, drop-in events at Norfolk Lodge Children’s Centre in Boston on 12 and 21 November 2024
- one article in the town and parish council newsletter