Tamworth- Free Play activities for under5s +Goody bag

aitchykate

headcrash27 wrote: »

In the city i live in we have two surestart centres which are located in the poorer areas. Unfortunately they are only available to people who live in those areas. I think this is really unfair and they should be made available for everyone to access. I don't know many people locally and i would love to be able to take my little girl along to one of the centres but i would get turned away for not living in the right place.

I regularly go to two different centres in Liverpool and sometimes to two others and don't live in the area of any of them and that's not a problem for them.
There was one activity I particularly liked (called baby peep) that got stopped because they said everyone who was coming was too middle class.

roosterpotatoes

baxbya wrote: »

I dont know if you're refering to a one off that they charge but The Thatto Heath St Helens centre do most of the activities (if not all) for free. I spent a lot of the summer at Peep O's, Story makers, Musical Mayhem and the galas each Wednesday - BRILLIANT - RECOMMEND

Hi there, i dont mean thatto heath, the ones i use are rainford, billinge, central link and moss bank and they all charge unfortunately, my ds1 is in our school nursery now and ds2 is 18 months, i suppose he would still get some use out of it but still on the buses £4.20 return is just too much (rant over):rotfl:
i might pop down when im next down your end though :beer:

roosterpotatoes

aitchykate wrote: »

I regularly go to two different centres in Liverpool and sometimes to two others and don't live in the area of any of them and that's not a problem for them.
There was one activity I particularly liked (called baby peep) that got stopped because they said everyone who was coming was too middle class.

bl00dy h3ll, i thought the whole idea with surestart was for the community to get togethet:eek:

headcrash27

Love_it wrote: »

Headcrash27- I'm a centre coordinator and i'm really disappointed to hear you've had that response when you tried to access the centres in your area. Any parent should be able to access any centre anywhere in the country. the centre may ask you to register but you should still be able to use their resources. Children's Centres are supposed to proritise services to those families most in need (e.g family support or sometimes nursery places) but we should still be offereing services on a universal level which by the sounds of it you'd like to access (e.g parent and toddler groups). sorry if i've used lots of jargon. In the old days (a few years ago) surestarts were a post code lottery but now every community should have one. Go and fight your corner! Your local famiily information service might have some more advice to you too

Thank you so much for this info. Last time i looked into it was into 2006 when my daughter was born so i guess things might have changed since then. I have just looked on the website and apparently there are now eight surestart centres in my city. I am a bit confused by this as last time i looked there were only two! However six of them call themselves children's centres, rather than surestart centres so i don't know if there is a difference or not. I think i will give them a ring tommorow and try and find out as it would be nice to go along to one.

superflygal

Hi folks,

Wow, i've been included in the weekly email!!!!! *blush*

I just wanted to say, I have been taking my babies to our Surestart centre for nearly a year now, and we have done masses of things there. It really is a wonderful service and the Government plough money into it, so the centres have better facilities than private nurseries.

We could probably be described as middle class and have always been made very welcome and have made friends with people from all walks of life. I have also never had a problem attending a session due to not living in a 'deprived area'.

I'd like to say well done to Surestart and the workers and nannies in the creche who make our days fun filled and enjoyable!

SFG x