An extra £500,000 has been found to soften the blow of cuts to children's centres across the Bath area.
The future of the area's centres will be discussed at a crunch council meeting next Thursday, amid concern over the impact of reducing spending by £2.3 million in the next year.
But this week, the ruling Liberal Democrat group on B&NES Council pre-empted the debate by announcing it would be putting an extra £500,000 into the early years budget for the 2014/15 financial year, reducing the cuts to £1.8 million.
The council says it still wants to reduce the number of centres it runs itself and to concentrate its resources on the most vulnerable families, but it says the extra money will mean it can offer more targeted outreach support.
Cabinet member for early years, children and youth Councillor Dine Romero (Lib Dem, Southdown) said it had listened to the concerns of opposition politicians and parents.
"The cabinet recognises that difficult decisions are being taken in response to the Government's approach to reducing the national financial deficit. We have listened carefully to the views and opinions from the public heard through both the policy development and scrutiny panel, and consultation meetings with parents using our services."
She said the extra cash would be spent on services that help the most vulnerable families to have "positive parenting aspirations and parenting skills", and children to develop properly and be ready for school.
She added: "This includes our target outreach support workers going out into the community to help families directly."
The windfall has been possible because the authority has increased the efficiency of its council tax collection and because Government funding cuts have been less drastic than feared.
Cabinet member for resources Councillor David Bellotti (Lib Dem, Lyncombe) said: "We are not taking funding away from any other service to the public to achieve this change."
From April 2015, the overall budget for services for children aged up to 11 would be £3.1 million compared to £4.9 million today. The financial detail of the revised savings target will be reported when the cabinet considers its 2014/15 budget proposals on February 12.
Next Thursday's debate was forced by supporters of the service who petitioned the council asking for a discussion by all members of the authority on the cuts.
Under current plans, hub centres would be kept in Bath, Keynsham and Radstock with centres at Midsomer Norton, Paulton and Peasedown St John being run by volunteers or other organisations.
Opposition campaigners had persuaded the Lib Dems to look again at the scale of the cuts by collecting a 1,000-signature petition.
Conservative shadow spokesman, Midsomer Norton councillor Michael Evans, said that despite numerous requests for clarity there still remained much uncertainty over what services would be delivered and who would access them.
He said: "Next week's council meeting will be a golden opportunity for Liberal Democrats to answer these questions and address the concern of local residents.
"It is wrong for local parents to be kept in the dark and left fearful for the future of their local children's centre and it's time that the council took action to allay these fears."
Labour group leader Councillor John Bull (Paulton), said his party welcomed the opportunity to debate the future of the centres.
The group will be putting forward a motion at the meeting asking for clarity from officers about the current services offered, the number of children being provided for, the current number and roles of staff in each centre and the opening hours and what these will be under proposals for the future.
Colleague Councillor Liz Hardman (Lab, Paulton), said: "A huge campaign by ordinary members of the public has finally forced the council to debate the kind of services it would like to see provided for children in this area. The council debate, which has been triggered by the 1,000-signature petition, will ensure that all B&NES councillors are aware of the cuts, and will force them to engage with this issue which is of huge concern to so many people.
"The fact that over 1,000 signatures were collected in such a short space of time is indicative of the importance of children's centres to our residents."
The meeting is at 6.30pm at the Guildhall.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
