CHILDREN'S centres in Skipton and Hellifield could become community hubs after North Yorkshire Council decided to go ahead with their 'de-registration'.

The Sure Start centres at Skipton's Parish Church School in Brougham Street, which opened in 2010 with £2.8m funding, and at Hellifield CP School, which received £75,000, are to be de-registered along with all 18 of North Yorkshire Council's remaining children's centres.

Members of the council's executive this week approved plans which the council says will allow greater flexibility in the future use of the buildings so that they can best meet the needs of their communities.

Since 2019, the authority’s children and families service has been committed to basing early help and safeguarding teams together where possible to improve communications, share best practice and provide joined-up services for families.

However, over this period, there has been a review of all council properties and leased spaces across the county enabling closer working for staff including children and families early help service and safeguarding teams.

Early Help redesigned the delivery of the activities to support children and their families moving to an approach involving both online and face-to-face activities. This has enabled the delivery of a countywide virtual activities programme which families are able to access from their home and reducing the need for the same number of premises.

A four-week consultation took place from August 27 to explore the potential of the use of the buildings in the future, as well as the option of closure.

Out of 224 respondents, 54 per cent strongly supported, or supported reviewing the children’s centres designation. The majority were in favour of de-registration of the centres to provide opportunities for alternative use of the buildings. This includes opportunities for an increase in early years provision, transferring the buildings to schools, communities using the buildings for a range of activities and potentially turning them into community hubs.

Councillor Janet Sanderson, the council's executive member for children and families, said: “By approving the recommendation to de-register 18 centres, it ensures that children’s services continue to operate in the same areas as they currently do. However, the approach is about better use of existing buildings in the community for the benefit of all.”

The authority’s assistant director for children and families, Mel Hutchinson, added: “Our aim is to unlock the full potential of our children’s centres by de-registering their status to be utilised by the community or charities, thereby benefitting young people and the wider community in a holistic way.

“In the 'Let’s Talk Money' 2022 and 2023 surveys, it was evident that the public wanted us to explore delivering value-for-money services. We are looking at how we can do that and realise the full potential of buildings owned by North Yorkshire Council, including our children’s centres.”

Looking ahead, plans will be explored to establish a working group to identify the future requirements of the children and young people’s service to ensure the delivery of services while looking at the number of buildings needed to do so.

This will then open up opportunities for the council to explore the future use of some of these buildings and potentially transferring them to schools, early years providers and the community.