Campaigners fighting Cheshire East Council plans to close Nantwich children’s centre, claim the authority could face a big bill from the Government.
Cheshire East wants to de-designate the centre on Dog Lane in Nantwich and run it as a mobile service, as part of a measure to save £500,000 a year.
Other Sure Start centres also set for de-designation are Sandbach, Knutsford, and Broken Cross in Macclesfield.
But now it has emerged that if the buildings are closed, the authority could have to repay capital grants handed out by the Government to set up the centres in the first place.
Campaigner Sally Handley said: “Councils that are seeking to de-designate or use their children’s centres for other purposes are facing a big bill from the DfE to get the grants back.
“We wonder whether Cheshire East has factored this cost into their £500k savings in the budget?
“We don’t know how much money the council was given to set up the four centres that are now marked for de-designation, but we’re pretty sure it’s going to be greater than £500,000.
“We are extremely worried, for a number of different reasons that not only might the savings not materialise but that the council might end up spending more in the pursuit of this de-designation project move to a mobile service, than if they had just left the children’s centre services as they are.”
In Parliament recently, childcare minister Sam Gyimah said the Department for Education has a “thorough process” in place for considering whether to claim back money from councils that have axed children’s centres set up with government cash.
£540m was allocated by the Labour government between 1999 and 2002 to open a network of Sure Start children’s centres.
But under a contractual “clawback” system, local authorities that ‘dispose of or change the use of buildings or assets funded wholly or partly through Sure Start capital grants’ risk being told to pay back the money.
A Cheshire East Council spokesman admitted today they are still trying to establish where the DfE funding came from for the centres in Nantwich, Sandbach, Knutsford and Macclesfield.
He added: “We are in contact with the DfE regarding the de-designation of children’s centres in Cheshire East.
“The DfE reviews the de-designation of all children’s centres on a case by case basis, and have stated that they only make these decisions once they receive a formal application to de-designate.
“Most children’s centres were set up before Cheshire East came into being and therefore the process of establishing where DfE funding was directed prior to local government reorganisation may take some time.”
Nantwichnews has contacted DfE and we are still awaiting a response.
The de-designation plans are due to go before the Children and Families Overview Scrutiny Committee on April 4.
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