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
Findings
- the project page had 300-page visitors. Of that number, 57 people clicked for further information and 22 of them completed surveys. This is a 7.3% visitor to respondent conversion rate which is very low. There could be several explanations for this. One being that the interim arrangements have been in place for a year and families have got used to current service delivery model. But we have no evidence to draw definite conclusions
- most respondents came via Let’s talk newsletter (11, 50%), social media (8, 36%), used an email link they had received directly (2, 9%) or a search engine (1, 5%). This reflects the way the survey was promoted
Of the 22 respondents:
- 14 respondents (14, 64%) selected option one - make permanent the interim arrangement to deliver services from nearby children's centres and provide outreach services in suitable locations, as their preferred option
- six respondents (6, 27%) selected option three - purchase the St Christopher’s building and undertake the necessary work to provide service there, as their preferred option
- two respondents (2, 9%) selected option two - make permanent the interim arrangement to deliver services from nearby children's centres, as their preferred option
- there were 19 text responses to provide any further comments they may have on the options or anything else they would like us to consider. These included:
- 13 comments supporting option one
- one comment supporting option two
- five comments supporting option three
- all respondents provided comments that supported their selected option
Those who supported option one and option two:
- expressed their satisfaction with the current interim arrangements (three comments) and close location of them (one comment)
- expressed their opinions about building maintenance responsibilities (two comments)
- stated that using existing facilities will save money (one comment)
- stated that outreach services will provide more accessible service to all families (one comment)
- expressed their concerns about capacity of the other children’s centres and limitation of sessions delivered due to closure of the building (one comment)
Those who supported option three emphasised the value of St Christopher’s as a community hub including:
- its location
- the potential for revitalising it to provide more services through partnership working with other organisations beyond the children’s centre services
In addition, respondents provided suggestions of alternative service delivery locations including:
- West Street offices
- outdoor and indoor sessions, for example at Peter Paine Performance Centre
- services within walking distance in other areas such as Kirton and Wyberton
- locations with parking
- other buildings in the Fenside area (for potential purchasing)
There was one suggestion to consider providing a bigger sensory room somewhere; similar to the room that was available at St Christopher’s Children’s Centre.
Who took part in the survey
- all respondents (22, 100%) either lived or worked in the Boston area
- out of 22 respondents:
- eight respondents (8, 36%) were health professionals
- seven respondents (7, 32%) were parents or carers
- five respondents (5, 23%) were responding in ‘other’ capacity including local residents (two), organisation representatives (two) and individuals previously using the centre (one)
- two respondents (2, 9%) were a representative of an organisation operating in Boston area
- of those who responded in the parent or carer capacity, five respondents (5, 71%) said that they had accessed services at St Christopher’s Children’s Centre whereas two respondents (2.29%) had not
Conclusions and next steps
The consultation report will be shared with executive member for children’s services to consider before making any decisions.
We will update the Let’s talk Lincolnshire platform with this finding report, decisions and any next steps.