Estate could lose childcare and community centre without council help

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

A West London estate could lose a vital childcare centre and community hub if it doesn’t receive more money from the council soon.

The Under Fives Centre at the World’s End Estate in Chelsea has been a go-to for parents who need childcare support for years.

But rising inflation and a lack of willing donors have meant the Play & Stay service, creche and play school –  run by a charity – could be forced to close their doors.

Patricia Alert, a coordinator at the centre, said there were concerns about what services the centre could continue to provide to parents in the future.

She said donations have dried up and the £55,000 yearly grant it receives from Kensington and Chelsea council isn’t enough to sustain all three of its services.

She claimed the centre’s trustees were in negotiations with the council for extra funding.

She said: “It’s at risk of closing down. We do get funding from the council. We are a charity and we have not been able to raise funds.

“We get money through a combination of things but with the cost of living crisis we’ve had to give our staff – who are already on the lowest pay ever – a raise in salary and that’s had an impact so we’re trying to raise funds.”

If it closed, it would have a “devastating” effect on mums on the estate, Kim Casey said.

She took her own daughters there when they were young and worried its potential closure, along with the shuttering of the estate’s legal advice centre, the World’s End Neighbourhood Advice Centre (WENAC), is simply too much for residents to bear.

She said: “That’s going to hurt a lot of people, especially single mums.”

She pleaded with Kensington and Chelsea council to keep WENAC, which is due to shut in June, up and running. The centre has helped residents across the board access advice on housing benefits, debt relief, as well as immigration issues for 40 years.

Kim said: “[WENAC] help us with all sorts of problems, especially [the staff]. You can go to them with anything and they’ll help.

“We need this centre. We all need it. We’re a community and we’re a big community.”

Kensington and Chelsea council said it pulled funding for the legal centre over concerns it was not providing the service residents needed.

The local authority claimed WENAC failed to take up four rounds of Covid-relief funding from the government and or make changes to how it runs following several reviews.

Instead, Kensington and Chelsea has hired the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and the Nucleus Legal Advice Centre to carry out the work WENAC once did.

A council spokesman said: “At the end of 2022, the council took the decision not to allocate funding to WENAC from April 2023. This decision was based on the charity not being able to satisfactorily demonstrate that they had met their agreed performance objectives.

“Despite months of support and capacity building from the Council, WENAC failed to evidence the required improvements and to become more sustainable. The current service WENAC is operating will incrementally reduce until June 2023.”

They also said claims the childcare centre and foodbank were closing due to a lack of funding from them was incorrect.

They said: “You may have heard that the creche and foodbank are closing due to the council removing funding, this is not the case.

“The food bank, located at the Venture Centre at World’s End, are still delivering their service as normal. The council continues to be one of the most generous boroughs for its support of the voluntary sector.

“We are aware of funding changes to the Under 5s Centre in the World’s End Estate, however, we are not changing the funding provided by the council, and the creche is still providing services and operating.

WENAC was approached for comment but did not respond at the time of publication.

Pictured top: The World’s End estate in Chelsea (Picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga)