Staff and Community-led Co-operatives for Children's Centres

The Conservatives have recently announced policies allowing local people to form community co-operatives to take over council services, and enabling public sector workers to form co-operatives to take over the services they deliver.

These policies are to be welcomed, particularly in one part of the public sector: namely, Children’s Centres.

Children's Centres are playing an increasingly important role in today’s society; bringing together important services for young children and their families; helping parents to develop their parenting skills and enjoyment of their children; providing support into (or back to) employment for parents seeking to work.

With the nature and range of services being provided – from breast-feeding clinics to childcare, from help with job applications to support for children with special needs – Children’s Centres are helping families in direct ways which can have an immediate impact on their day to day lives. They could do this even more effectively if they established on a co-operative basis.

Prepared by Co-operatives UK and Cobbetts LLP.