St Christopher’s Children’s Centre consultation

Final outcomes

The public consultation ran between 5 November 2024 to 6 December 2024. During this period, we received a total of twenty-two responses. We carefully considered all feedback provided.

Based on the consultation, we have decided to make the interim arrangement permanent. Services that were previously available at St Christopher’s will now be delivered from the following locations:

• Norfolk Lodge
• Carlton Road Children’s Centre
• Fishtoft Road Children’s Centre

This change ensures that the local community can continue to access these essential services. Additionally, we will offer outreach support for families at other suitable locations, such as Boston Library, Central Park, and other community venues.

For a detailed overview of the consultation feedback please see the consultation summary report.

Thank you to everyone who participated and shared their valuable insights.

This is what we asked you.

Lincolnshire County Council has been running children’s centre services from St Christopher’s Church in Boston under a lease agreement. Offering early years activities and support for families. Services include:

• Start for Life offer
• Healthy Child programme
• Early Support and Learning Provision

In December 2023 due to urgent roof repairs to the building, the children's centre services delivered from St Christopher’s Children’s Centre were moved to Carlton Road and Norfolk Lodge Children’s Centres as an interim measure whilst the landlord could address the issues.

St Christopher’s building now requires significant maintenance, and the landlord has, at this time, not agreed to the necessary works. As a result, we consider it unsafe to continue to deliver these services from this location at this current time.

As a local authority, we have a statutory duty to consult on the future of the children’s centre and how the services are delivered.

We have considered the option of purchasing St Christopher’s building and undertaking the necessary works to make the building safe. Whilst this would ensure services carry on at this location, the costs are high and would mean resources would be diverted from delivering services. The combined attendance for this centre is not seen as significant enough to warrant the cost. For this reason, this option is not preferred.

We therefore propose the following options:

Option 1– The council’s preferred option is to

• Make permanent the interim arrangement that has seen the services previously available at St Christopher’s delivered instead from the nearby Norfolk Lodge, Carlton Road and Fishtoft Road Children’s Centres. This will ensure that these services can continue to be accessed by the local community in future.
• In addition to the above, to provide outreach support for families at other suitable locations for example Boston Library, Central Park or other.

Option 2

• Make permanent the interim arrangement that has seen the services previously available at St Christopher’s delivered instead from the nearby Norfolk Lodge, Carlton Road and Fishtoft Road Children’s Centres. This will ensure that these services can continue to be accessed by the local community in future.

Option 3

• Purchase the St Christopher’s building and undertake the necessary work to ensure the building is safe for use. Option 1 would need to continue in the interim until any necessary work had been completed.

If you would like to comment on this consultation, you can do so by completing the survey. All feedback received will be considered before a final decision is taken by executive member for children’s services by 31 December 2024.

We will update this page with the decision and any next steps.