Supporting the community
We are proud of the children at Hope who have painted and made poppies for the pageant on Saturday 15th September …. “Everyone remembered”
Thanks also to Jan Brodie-Murphy and the team for doing such a sterling job and representing the community so well. Such a fantastic effort and great results!
2018-09-06 Autumn Term Newsletter.docx
Here is the latest Early Years newsletter containing information and updates on parties, term dates and other interesting things….
On November 29th we will be holding our Christmas Fayre. We are delighted that the Mayor and Mayoress of Bromyard will be with us this year to open the event and hope that lots of friends and families will be there too. Refreshments will be provided by Oscar’s café and maybe even some mulled wine to get us in the festive mood! It’s a lovely opportunity to get in some gifts for Christmas or treat yourself or a friend or relative and we look forward to welcoming you all…. and in the meantime check out our What’s on calendar at the centre for Halloween activities and spooky fun!
All proceeds go to our charity and if you would like to support us in other ways you might be interested in becoming a Friend of Hope; please click here for more information.
We would like to say a huge congratulations to Becky Hill and Charlotte Hodges, both of whom were nominated for Bromyard Slimming World Woman of the Year 2018, alongside Bev Barber. Congratulations to all on their nominations and to Becky, who has lost 5 1/2 stone since joining on 8th January this year, for winning the title.
As members of Bromyard Slimming World and also as employees at Hope, it was important for Becky and Charlotte to be able to maintain their slimming meals in the workplace as well as creating their own lovely slimming meals at home…. which is where Netti and the team at Oscar’s Café stepped in. Together Becky and Netti agreed to add some Slimming World friendly meals to the Oscar’s café menu after Becky explained that as a Slimming World member it can sometimes be difficult to eat out with friends and not have to be stuck having a jacket potato and beans every time. And now Slimming world friendly meals are on the menu at Oscar’s café. So, if you are a Slimming World member please come and visit us. Currently on the menu are low syn Chinese chicken curry (1.5 syns) and also a syn free chilli. Netti has got other slimming world recipes to try, that will soon be available and of course can be enjoyed by Slimming & non Slimming World members alike.
Background Last year a consultation took place about the future of the Children’s Centre service delivery after March 2018 in Bromyard.
An overwhelming majority wanted us to remain delivering the service.
Service Changes You will notice with immediate effect and over the next 3 months, changes that will have to be made in order to deliver the service in accordance with the funding and contractual arrangements that the Council require. This will affect our universal services (groups, events) and also our individual support work with families. We have had to change the names of the groups we run and we are aware that there has been some negative feedback to this.
Current situation In order to move towards the changes the Hope Centre is expected to make the service has to move in line with what the Council intend to offer from October 2018. The Council has informed us that there will need to be reductions to services in Bromyard in order to align our delivery with other Children’s Centres in Herefordshire, and focus on specific targets. Originally it was hoped that the Council would make those decisions before March 2018 but this did not happen. We can confirm that we have received a revised contract to deliver until the end of September 2018 on new terms and conditions.
Hope centre services Our priority is, and always has been, all the families we work with and this will continue to be at the forefront of all the services here. However, as a result of the changes that are being made to Children’s Centres nationally and locally, we are obviously affected.
Future The future for Hope’s involvement in the delivery of this service however still remains uncertain. We have worked very hard since the Consultation in the intervening months to convey the importance of maintaining a universal and targeted service in Bromyard to the Council and will continue to do so.
We are very grateful to everyone who has helped us to do this and for the ongoing support we receive. The Council are in the process of making decisions about the future delivery in Bromyard that will be in place in October in just over 3 months. We will of course keep everyone updated as soon as we can and in the meantime….
Please support us We would like to encourage everyone who uses the centre to carry on coming and supporting us: let us know what matters to you and how you will be affected if there wasn’t a children’s centre service here in Bromyard for you to access. The Cabinet member for Children and Young People is visiting us in June and we will be informing her about our concerns about the reductions and the impact upon the families we work with. It is very helpful for us to know how you will be affected if you can’t access support or help immediately in Bromyard so please let us know.
If you would like any more information or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
