ISSUE: Chiswick Child and Family Centre  

The following has been issued by the Public Relations unit of Hounslow Council

Brentford/Chiswick Child and Family Centre - Chiswick Site

Hounslow has three child and family centres - Brentford/Chiswick (on two sites but managed jointly); Nantly House in Hounslow and Feltham. They offer support for parents and very young children identified as having particular/special needs. Currently 160 children receive support from the centres at an annual cost of almost £1m.

Officers have been carrying out a review of the service to see how we can use resources more effectively to:

• enable more children and families to receive support;
• provide a better range of services and meet a wider range of needs. These could include counselling and training for parents; child psychiatric and psychological services; assessment sessions and new services for families with children aged 5-11;
• deliver the Government’s new standards for the Assessment of Children in Need;
• retain and recruit staff. This is a service where the public expects the highest standard of training and qualification. We have a number of vacancies and have struggled to recruit in recent times;

The aim of the review is to suggest ways of making resources available to improve services and not simply to reduce costs.

Only four children currently attending Chiswick will require centre-based support from the Autumn. The review is likely to recommend transferring them to the Brentford site and changing the way we use the Chiswick site. This could free up the resources needed to improve services across the Borough. 

There would be NO staff redundancies. Existing staff could transfer to other sites where there are currently vacancies.

Chiswick could be retained as a resource centre, operating three days a week. It could offer parent and toddler groups, a support group for parents of children with disabilities, holiday clubs, a counselling service, a creche and facilities for community groups.

No decision has yet been made. A further report will be presented to Councillors in October or November. In the meantime there will be further consultation/discussion with individual parents and other interested parties..

The case for the maintenance of the facility