Statement on a legal challenge to the Council’s plans for children’s centres

The Council's response to a legal challenge to the Council's proposals for children's centres:

Read the consent order and statement of reasons regarding the judicial review.

Hackney Council has decided to settle by consent the Judicial Review relating to the proposed changes to local children’s centres following advice from its external legal advisors. 

The Council stands by the need to make changes to the way we provide subsidised childcare in order to make our early years provision more sustainable, as a result of rising costs, staffing challenges and overall financial pressures on local authorities.

However in light of the advice we have received we do not believe it is in residents’ best interests to use any further resources to defend the legal challenge.

We will take this opportunity to review our approach on how to make our early years provision more sustainable in the future, and present future plans as soon as it is practically possible.

Hackney Council

We agree that access to high quality and inclusive childcare is incredibly important in helping children have the best start in life and grow up happy and healthy. This is why for many years we have done everything in our power to keep Council-funded children centres offering subsidised childcare open long after many other local authorities have closed theirs. 

Our decision to consult on proposed changes in early 2024 was part of our efforts to find a more sustainable early years offer, and help ensure that we best spend our increasingly limited financial resources to support those in greatest need. 

The consultation we conducted this year wasn’t just about closing children’s centres. The options we were looking at included finding alternative providers for two children’s centres, and transforming one into a nursery for children with special educational needs and disabilities. 

We understand that families and staff all need certainty about what will happen next. 

We will use this time to review our approach, while continuing to seek ways to make our early years provision more sustainable in the future. 

We will make sure we keep the families that use our services and our staff informed of any future steps.

Caroline Woodley, Mayor of Hackney