Yesterday, the Children’s and Young People Scrutiny Committee, Herefordshire Council met to review a proposal made by Herefordshire Council to move services in house.

The meeting was recorded and can be viewed here Children and young people scrutiny committee – Tuesday 19 January 2021 10.00 am – YouTube

This link shows the public questions put to the Council in response to the proposal Public Questions

At the end of the meeting, a unanimous Scrutiny Committee vote recommended a deferral of the decision and an extension of the current service for up to 12 months.

A decision is due to be published on January 22nd by Cllr. Felicity Norman and more details can be found here

The Hope Centre Children’s Centre staff team and Board of Trustees would like to thank everyone who sent in their comments of support.  They have all been sent in an anonymised format to the Council and a copy of what everyone said is available here.

Although the Council did not formally consult the local community, we are glad  you had a chance to tell us what you thought and to see how much support there was for the Hope Centre and its many services.

We would also like to acknowledge the support and involvement of Bromyard & Winslow Town Council who held an Extraordinary Meeting last week to discuss this item and also give thanks to the Ward Cllrs. Alan Seldon, Jonathan Lester and Nigel Shaw all of whom made representations on behalf of the community in Bromyard. Finally, our thanks to Sarah Kelly, Chair of Trustees, who was called as a witness to the meeting and delivered a very powerful endorsement of Hope’s services.

Thank you, Heidi Mulholland and Sarah Eardley

 

CURRENT LOCKDOWN UPDATE ON SERVICES

January 5^th 2021

We are all aware at Hope of the difficulties many of you will be facing during the current lockdown.  We will continue to offer all our services during the current lockdown, although we have had to make some adjustments in order to remain compliant with current lockdown guidance.  This means that most of our staff team are working remotely and most of the services will continue to be offered but either virtually or by phone.

Below is some information, which we hope you will find useful. One of the things we are here to do is help offer advice and guidance on lots of different matters, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you need help.

For all general enquiries during this period, and until further notice, our main reception and phone line are not staffed.  Please call or text us on 07395 959240 instead or email info@hopefamilycentre.org.  Someone will get back to you as quickly as possible. Our office hours are 9am-5pm. All visitors must make a prior appointment before turning up at the Centre.

Our Children’s Centre, Contact Centre, Early Years services and Hub food deliveries are fully operational. Here are the numbers to call or text if you need to get in touch:

Early Years 07851962461             

Children’s Centre 07377318386/07395 959240

Child Contact Centre 07495 470476       

Hub food/lunchbox deliveries: 07395 959240

Please leave a message if no one answers and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Shopping / meds deliveries: If you require help with shopping or meds deliveries, please call 07395 959240 or email info@hopefamilycentre.org

Citizens Advice Service: If you want to access advice and guidance on specialist matters, we can offer you an appointment with Citizens Advice Bureau. Please call 07395 959240 to make an appointment.

We have been advised by PWP that Parenting classes are being offered virtually now and so Tuesday classes are not running at the Centre until further notice.

On behalf of us all, we hope to be back together as soon as it is safe to do so and hope you all remain safe and well in the meantime.

The team and I would like to thank the community, our funders, volunteers and partners for their  support in 2020. We hope everyone remains safe and well over Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in 2021.

All services will run as normal until Christmas Eve and we will reopen on Monday 4th January, 2021.

For information about particular services, please visit the other pages of our website

Day one of our new services went brilliantly yesterday and we were so pleased to see people attending their appointments.  Some people had never visited us before and we had really good feedback about the venue, the safety and how useful the advice was.

The Hope Centre, Bromyard and Winslow Town Council and CAB are hopeful that this new partnership has come at just the right time. There is a lot of anxiety, concern and worry about and we hope that everyone in Bromyard has heard about the new support available.  Booking essential by calling or texting 07395 959240 or email info@hopefamilycentre.org

Hereford Times had a feature about the service which can be seen here and Sonya Gregory, Services Manager, spoke on BBC Hereford and Worcester on Monday evening. Click here to read the article Hereford Times

The Hope Centre are pleased to be working in partnership with CAB for the first time.