A CHILDREN’S centre providing vital support for parents could be left with no trained healthcare professionals as council cuts begin to bite, it has been claimed.
Woodside Children’s Centre in Wood Street, Walthamstow, provides parent support groups and childcare services.
But in November a health visitor who held regular sessions was removed from the service and the future of an allocated midwife and community nurse is uncertain.
The Bumps and Babies Group, based at the centre, provides support for new or expectant parents. There are fears the group could fold.
Montserrat Roig de Puig has been attending since the birth of her daughter four months ago.
She said the help was invaluable and the sessions were a good way for parents to meet each other, receive advice and recommend other services.
The 35-year-old, of Rosslyn Road, Walthamstow, said: “We are devastated to hear the health visitor has gone as she has been an immense source of support to us and our babies.
“We were told it was because of budget cuts. She was excellent because she gave all kinds of advice, and we could ask her whatever we needed to.
“Her session was only for two hours a week. It is pathetic to cut that.
“It is definitely less appealing to go without a health worker there to listen to our queries and give us advice.
“When I spoke to the midwife she didn’t know 100 per cent if she was going to stay. She heard rumours about her job going. She didn’t know come April if her job would still be there.”
A spokeswoman for Outer North East London Community Services (ONEL CS) said: "The London Borough of Waltham Forest gave notice to ONEL CS that they intended to withdraw the funding for the health visitors that supported their children’s centre, as it was only intended to provide this until the end of March 2011.
“The London Borough of Waltham Forest are now proposing to offer a different care model to deliver services in the future.
“The health visitors from the children centres were redeployed into vacant posts, within community health visiting services, to ensure that families with children under the age of five, continue to receive a health visiting service.
"No health visiting capacity has been lost as a result of these changes."
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