Shadow Children and Families Minister sees model for the future at Stourbridge Children and Families Centre

At a meeting with Action for Children and Dudley Children’s services held at the Stourbridge Children and Families centre Maria Miller MP praised local services and outlined Conservative policies. Key announcements were:

• Conservative commitment to Sure Start as key to narrowing the gap between the life chances of children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those born with greater opportunities.
• Acknowledging and acting on the results of research that show Sure Start is not reaching the most vulnerable families.
• Conservative policy will be to encourage the use of charities and voluntary organisations to run more Sure Starts and other children and family centres; and to ensure a much greater link with local health services as a means of enabling greater contact with the most vulnerable families who are often missed by the system at the moment.
• Conservatives will train and provide greater numbers of health visitors who would be under the management of Sure Start.
• There must be a greater distinction between Children’s centres and schools. Primary Schools are swamped by the administrative demands that come down from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
• A Conservative government would return responsibilities for running primary schools to School Heads. Accountability is important but it has to be in proportion to other aspects of running a school. The accountability regime is completely out of proportion at the moment.

Margot James, Conservative Candidate for Stourbridge welcomed the announcements “Five out of thirteen Children’s centres in Dudley are already run by charities and voluntary organisations which is above average for the country, so we are well placed locally to take advantage of the shift towards voluntary sector provision that has a better record of reaching the most vulnerable families than services provided directly by local authorities”.

Margot also said “I visited the Cradley Church of England Primary School last week and was saddened to hear that an excellent Head is taking early retirement because of the impossible demands made on her by Whitehall. I was delighted to hear Maria say that there would be considerably less interference by the DCSF in the day to day running of primary schools under a Conservative Government”.

Steve Rowe, divisional manager of Action for Children, said that one of the hardest to reach types of families in need were families who have children with disabilities, it was especially difficult where the parents also had disabilities. Reaching out to support such families would be a challenge for any new Government.

After the meeting Maria Miller was given a tour of the Children and Families Centre and acknowledged its status as a leader in its field. She praised in particular it’s links with health and mental health services, the record of outreach and the fact that it is a hub in the local community, bringing generations together with its support for older people and is open in to the evenings and at weekends.

Photo: Margot joins Shadow Minister Maria Miller on a tour of the Stourbridge Children and Families Centre