Sad news – but horribly familiar. Hampshire Council reneged on their promise to give parents’ concerns due consideration and have pushed through cuts of 35% to the Sure Start budget. They are moving ahead with a plan to privatise and merge all Sure Start centres. There will be no piloting of the plan and the invitation to tender will be made available to interested parties in the Autumn.
Catherine Ovenden said, “Those voting in favour of the new plans seem to be disregarding all qualitative and quantitative evidence supporting the value of early intervention. I am encouraged that the Select Committee have asked for progress reports. However, I really hope they realise the impact that their decision today could have on young lives across Hampshire. I fear that they are making a huge mistake.”
A young artist, Natasha Gough, has been so inspired by the SOCC Hampshire campaign that she has created the image below. Natasha said, “when I first heard about the SOCC Hampshire campaign I thought this sounded like a really worthwhile project. So much hard work has clearly gone into the campaign and I loved that SOCC Hampshire had managed to rally so many people together because of this. I wanted to capture in an image what it is that Catherine and others have done, and why it is so important not only to them, but to so many parents and children as well.”
SOCC Hampshire will be selling prints and postcards of the image to raise funds for the campaign. Anyone interested in purchasing one, should email socchampshire@gmail.com .
No Cuts For Kids 