Influential Pen Green children’s centre faces closure due to council cuts

It has been called the world’s most famous children’s centre, a globally influential early-years family project that grew out of one of the UK’s most deprived communities and provided the inspiration for Sure Start. Now this Great British success story faces disaster – at the hands of its local Tory-run council. North Northamptonshire council’s executive meets on Tuesday morning to discuss proposals to take an axe to the funding of Pen Green, a trailblazing state-funded nursery school in the former steel town of Corby. There is a growing outcry. “Why are they punishing the people who need their support?” said one incredulous parent at a drop-in session. The council is out of touch with reality, said another parent, Anthony Lee, 43, watching his young son playing in the giant sandpit at the heart of Pen Green. He says the cuts fly in the face of everything the government says it stands for: “If you cut the centre’s funding, it is not levelling up – it’s levelling down.” Read more.