Parents have launched a petition calling on Leicester City Council to drop plans to close six of its 12 children, young people and families centres.
Save Our Children’s Centres said closing the family hubs would have a ‘profound, lasting, and hugely detrimental impact’ on the city.
Campaigners said the proposed cuts seemed ‘beyond foolhardy’ given the numbers of children living in poverty, unprecedented numbers of four and five-year-olds struggling at school with communication and toilet training, and over-stretched mental health services.
In 2018, 11 family hubs were closed in Leicester, and SOCC said the further cuts would mean most families no longer have a children’s centre within 15 minutes of their home, hitting poorer families hardest.
A council spokesperson said: ‘We are trying to preserve as many services for families in our communities as possible – these can be delivered in children’s centres, but they can also be based from other council and community-run buildings.
‘We want to maximise our dwindling resources on services instead of buildings where possible.’
