£6m Investment for Children's Centres

Children and their families across Leicester are to benefit from a £6 million investment in children's centres by Lib Dem led Leicester City Council.

The council has built brand-new buildings or carried out major refurbishment work at nine city sites.

These include a £1 million centre in Thurnby Lodge, a £1 million building in Northfields, and a £750,000 centre in Belgrave.

The other centres are in and around Eyres Monsell, Thurnby Lodge, the West End, and Belgrave.

New Parks has a £1.2 million centre, built with a £900,000 contribution from Sure Start and the support of children's charity Barnardos.

Many of the centres are linked to, or on the same site as city council primary schools to make them even easier to use.

Cllr Hussein Suleman, Cabinet member responsible for children and young people said: "The centres will help to improve the lives and future prospects of many children and their families in areas of the greatest need. This makes them a very important and worthwhile investment for the whole city."

Belgrave and Rushey Mead Children's Centre will be opened this Saturday (10th June).

The centres bring together a wide range of services that families with young children need, including midwifery, full day-care, speech and language therapy, family support and family and adult learning.

As well as offering special services tailored to meet the needs of local people, they also offer social work support, special needs advice, teenage pregnancy support and employment advice.

The centres will build on the success of the Government's Sure Start programme, which was first launched in the city in Beaumont Leys and Stocking Farm in 1999.

All of the centres will be known as Sure Start children's centres.

The centres in Eyres Monsell, Northfields, New Parks, Thurnby Lodge and the West End are set to open during the summer.