Page 18 - link magazine

Children’s Centres chart a new course
From 1 April new budgets come into Abbey Meads Primary School will
play and the number of children’s now become a Family Centre; a 30
centres in the town will have been per cent cut in funding has meant a
cut from 14 to 7 to reduce Swindon reduction of two staff and a cut in
Council’s costs. hours for all others. Manager Tanya
In the West the independent Parkinson said: “We will do less
charity West Swindon Family Centre one-to-one family support work to
will continue with a narrower focus concentrate on parenting groups.
of activity based on group work Staff have received additional
with parents. Business development specialist training and we hope to
coordinator Mike Smith commented become a centre of excellence.
that the centre’s funding from the “Another exciting development is
council had been reduced by half that Butterflies has been commis-
which meant losing two members sioned to run an Early Bird Plus
of staff. He said: “As a Family programme for parents of children
Centre we will be receiving funding aged 4 to 8 years diagnosed on the
from Swindon Borough Council to autistic spectrum.
deliver tried and tested parenting “I’m particularly pleased that we
programmes and support parents in are able to continue our very popu-
accessing and completing them. lar Stay and Play sessions, which
“The first aim of this is to equip can attract up to 60 parents and
English, Mathematics and Science parents with the necessary tools children a session, but this provision
Fully qualified teachers to help them face the challenges will be funded by the sessional
Accelerated GCSE programme of parenting and create long term payments of those who attend.
positive parent/child relationships. “Whilst the focus at Butterflies
11+ training and preparation
“The second is to expand our has changed, our core activity
Free assessment and first lesson
range of groups, programmes and remains. I believe we’ve always
Boost your child’s confidence projects to reach children, parents been good at offering group support
and families beyond our normal to parents and with the train-
audience. This is to help the centre ing recently undertaken we will
move away from a dependency on continue to deliver the best service
council funding and towards a more possible.”
NEW
self-sustaining future.” • Butterflies is holding a fundraising
Childcare
vouchers
accepted
Butterflies Children’s Centre at Spring Fair on 8 April. See page 31

HIGHER Affordable tuition fees,

flexible study options and
EDUCATION highly qualified lecturers
with industry experience.

& ACCESS Just some of the reasons why
so many people are choosing
OPEN to stay local and do a university
course with New College. Visit
EVENING our Open Evening to find out
more!

THURS 30 APRIL

5:30-7:30PM

QUEENS DRIVE | SWINDON | SN3 1AH WWW.NEWCOLLEGE.AC.UK/HEOPEN

18 swindonlink.com n April 2015