VULNERABLE families will be hit hard after workers providing vital support at a children's centre in one of Waltham Forest's most deprived areas were told they will lose their jobs, it is claimed.
Two frontline staff supporting parents at Chingford Hall Children's Centre will leave their posts on June 15, despite parents saying they were assured staff would be safe when a shake-up of centres across the borough was announced in October last year.
The front-line experts support parents with a number of issues, including helping those with difficult children and mothers with post-natal depression.
The move comes after 1,000 people signed a petition against the move.
Michelle Mina, 32, a parent and volunteer at the centre in Burnside Avenue, feels parents views have been ignored and fears the redundancies could have far-reaching consequences.
She said: "It's disgusting. I don't think the council cares about what we think at all.
"Everyone knows about the petition but they have not listened to us.
"You can't run the centre on volunteers alone.
"Parents with depression and children considered at risk rely on the staff's expert help. Who will offer that now?"
Chingford Hall was one of six children's centres where services were not due to be significantly reduced as part of the changes.
The centre in Burnside Avenue was to become a main hub in Chingford, while Parkside Children's Centre in The Ridgeway and Yardley Children's Centre in Hawkswood Crescent were to be downsized.
The three were grouped together in one of six 'clusters' across the borough.
One full-time receptionist will lose their job at the centre in Hawkswood Crescent, but the council has not revealed what other redundancies there will be across the borough.
Mrs Mina, of Hazel Way in Chingford, whose daughter Antonia attends the children's centre, added: "We were told last August that no cuts would be made here.
"It's appalling that they're going back on their word and that they have done so in such an underhand way."
She claimed staff were told their jobs would be at risk if they speak out about the cuts and said she could have gathered 4,000 signatures - the number required to trigger a council debate - if she had been notified about the cuts sooner.
The authority has been asked to comment.
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