Council criticised over plans to take over town’s children service

Bromyard councillors have blasted Herefordshire Council for planning a ‘power grab’ to integrate children services which are independently run in the town.

The county council is looking to integrate the commissioned early help children’s centre service for the Bromyard area with their existing in-house provision from 2021.

The contract is worth £25,000 per year and the services are currently provided by community charity HOPE in the town.

The Bromyard area is the only part of the county where children centre is externally commissioned.

All other areas are centrally governed and managed by council officers.

But ward councillors and the local community have voiced strong opposition to these changes.

Bromyard West councillor Alan Seldon said council officers were jealous of what HOPE had achieved with reduce funding.

“You want to get your hands on it,” he told today’s (January 19) children and young people scrutiny committee.

“And now you have a portfolio holder that you seem to be able to manipulate.

“The impression I’ve been getting over the years is that the HOPE centre has been a thorn in the side of the department.

“It’s different, it doesn’t conform to the norms and you don’t have that overall control over it.

“I need to be convinced that this isn’t a power grab.

“Everything that this current administration in Herefordshire has been saying is that we should be devolving services.

“Some of the words used at the town council meeting actually rang very serious alarm bells when a former mayor said this appears to be an attack on the fabric of the community that is Bromyard.

“Of all the things I’ve seen go wrong in children services over the last 13 years I’ve been a member of this council, they all come back to one thing.

“And that’s a culture within the department.

“Now you want to have a foothold in your last independent children’s provision in the county, this worries me greatly.

“What we should be doing is rolling HOPE out in the county and let communities decide.

“Not have this centralised approach which smacks to me more of Big Brother than it does of anything else.”

Bromyard Bringsty councillor Nigel Shaw said in a written statement said Hope achieved an Outstanding Ofsted rating and he felt the county council was putting Bromyard at the bottom of the pile in terms of services.

“Following Covid, Bromyard’s recycling centre was the last to reopen; Bromyard’s library remains closed, Bromyard’s leisure centre has remained closed; resource to preserve Bromyard’s conservation areas by enforcing section 215 notices has been absent,” he said.

“Now Herefordshire Council want to cease funding a modest £25,000 contract to support the local beacon of excellence and pride which is the Hope Centre.

“I fear this says more about the face of petty bureaucracy than a wish to deliver innovation in the excellence of early years support.

“I ask that the cabinet member re-consider all options before she disrespects the wishes of the community that I am privileged to represent.”

The town council also raised concerns over the drive to take services in house without evidence.

The scrutiny committee unanimously agreed to call on children and families cabinet member Felicity Norman to consider conducting a comprehensive consultation with the local community in Bromyard before making a decision.

They also want the contract to be put out for retender when it expires this year rather than having the council take over the service.

Coun Norman said it was a difficult decision.

She said she would consider the recommendations before making her final decision.