AS THE mum of a pre-school daughter I have highly valued the children’s centres I have attended (in Barton, Wheatley, Wood Farm and Cutteslowe).

It was at a children’s centre when my daughter was barely 10 weeks old that I learned about the childminding coordination run by Oxfordshire children’s services that would eventually prove crucial to the continuation of my job.

I have attended workshops at desperate moments of sleep deprivation and exhaustion that most new parents will recognise. I learned about baby swimming classes. Sometimes i welcomed a coffee and attended regular play and social sessions at otherwise lonely times that my daughter, now thriving at nursery, much enjoyed and learned from.

To argue as a justification for cuts that the network of children’s centres duplicates services is disingenuous – that’s the point of them – in the same way local schools and hospitals duplicate services.

Serious research consistently points to the value at all levels of early years and pre-school interventions and resources.

So these proposals affect the young, their main carers (likely to be women – mums, but also grandmothers who are very often present in these centres, childminders and others). Of course they will hit the poorest hardest and that’s where the campaigns will rightly be focused. But cuts will be felt across the community of families with young children. I hope there can be the widest possible campaign to halt these damaging proposals.

STEPHANIE KITCHEN
Wheatley Road
Forest Hill