IN a recent scaremongering Labour leaflet distributed in the Moorside Ward there is a statement that says that the Conservatives would cut funding of children’s centres, resulting in the closure of one in five of the centres.

I wish to clarify this deliberate attempt to misinterpret Conservative policy.

The Conservatives are totally committed to the Sure Start programme, including children’s centres and the very valuable work that they do here in Bury.

The Conservatives want to see them work even better than they do now and want to work better with families that most need our help.

The Conservatives would introduce a genuinely universal health visiting service across the country, so that every family has the support and advice they need to give their children a good start in life, by providing more health visitors and guaranteeing a minimum level of service to all new mothers both pre and post natal. This would include:

Provide 4,200 more health visitors across the country so that families have the support and advice they need to give their children a good start in life;

Ensure a minimum guarantee of two visits by a health visitor in the home to all mothers during the later weeks of pregnancy until birth, to advise on pregnancy nutrition, health, and preparation for child-raising;

A minimum guarantee of six hours of health visitor support in the home for all families over the first two weeks of a child’s life;

A minimum guarantee of visits every two weeks in the home for all families for the next six months of a child’s life;

A minimum guarantee of monthly visits, either in the home or in the health visitor’s base, for all children between six months and one year to support mothers in the critical transition to solid feeding, establishing good sleep patterns and coping as a family with a growing child;

A minimum guarantee of at least two visits every year for every child between the ages of one and five, either in the home or in the health visitor’s base, for immunisation advice, hearing and vision tests, and developmental and growth checks;

Ensure a better start in life for children in poorer families; we will establish a Child Health Inequalities Fund of £10 million per year to boost support for families in the most deprived areas.

(Extract from Conservative Plan for Social Reform) The cost of this would be met by using the funds the current Government has allocated for a new army of Sure Start ‘outreach workers’ who will lack the professional training of health visitors and therefore not command the same confidence of parents (survey evidence).

The Labour activists in Bury will continue as ever to misinterpret Conservative Policy to their own ends — we would expect nothing less. However, the Conservatives will continue to keep the people of Bury informed with truthful and genuine information.

Councillor Diana Ashworth Executive Member for Children & Young People Bury Council