Parents in Newcastle have launched an independent campaign against council cuts to Sure Start services. At its first Parents Against Cuts activity on 23 July, scores of families attended a Teddy Bears’ Protest outside the Labour-led Civic Centre. While children played and protested with their teddies to passing council workers, parents held an open-air meeting to discuss the next steps for the campaign. The mood was militant, with the majority of parents seeing the need to force the council to reverse its decision, and taking a position against all cuts.
Parents Against Cuts was initiated by supporters of FRFI following a picnic and rally against cuts to Sure Start organised by Unison on 3 July, at which Labour council leader Nick Forbes spoke. Proposals for Sure Start cuts were first made in November 2012 and voted through by the Labour-led council in March 2013. £1m cuts have already been made and altogether a 65% reduction in the Sure Start budget is underway. Workers leaving their posts are not being replaced. Already a number of groups have lost funding and are now dependent on volunteers or being run by outside organisations. In the case of Teeny Weenies at Centre for Sport, the group, which used to be free, now costs £1.50, which has led to attendance dropping. Other Sure Start groups are becoming more restrictive in who can participate in them, such as Water Peeps at Elswick Pool. The popular free family swims, which have been subsidised by Sure Start since free swimming was abolished by the Coalition Government in 2010, have now been stopped. Elswick Pool is now the only council pool left in the West of the city and continues to be under threat of privatisation or closure this summer. Three council leisure facilities have just been transferred to a charity called North County Leisure.
Parent against Cuts have planned a number of protests which will involve children playing and occupying public spaces to cause maximum disruption to the life of the city. During September there will be a ‘Messy March’ to the Civic Centre as a response to the council’s sham consultation on cuts to Sure Start and other family services. Of 14 five-hour consultation meetings planned so far, only four will have free crèche facilities, making the majority inaccessible to those most in need of the services under threat. Parents have been forced to take matters into their own hands since the Unison strategy of waiting till October to present a petition to the council would demobilise opposition. We also intend to challenge Nick Forbes directly: he will not be able to escape as easily as he could on 3 July.
No cuts to Sure Start! No cuts full stop!
