Mums from across the country will use Mother’s Day this Sunday (3rd April) as an opportunity to descend upon Downing Street and oppose cuts to Sure Start Children’s Centres.

 Five mums and their toddlers will hand in a petition representing around 50,000 signatures collected by local campaigns. Campaigns represented will include those from Lambeth, Hampshire, Manchester, Camden, Stoke, Liverpool, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kirklees and Derby, where parents have been fighting tirelessly against closures and cuts to their highly valued Sure Start provision.

The event has been organised by busy toddler Mum, Louise King who has formed the ‘No Cuts for Kids’ campaign in response to the national cuts to Sure Start provision which parents are currently witnessing. The event is also being supported by childcare charity Daycare Trust and Netmums, the UK’s largest online parenting site, which is where many of the mums running local campaigns met to plan their activity and gather support.  Last month Netmums also launched a UK-wide ‘Save our Children’s Centres Campaign’.

Research published earlier this year suggests that over the next year 250 Sure Start Children’s Centres face closure, meaning 60,000 families face losing their local centre; 86% will have a decreased budget; and staff at 1,000 centres have been issued with ‘at risk of redundancy' notices.

Louise, who is mum to 14 month old Rufus said:

“On the day the nation's thoughts turn to mothers and the job they do, we wanted to highlight the devastating impact that these cuts are having on mums and kids everywhere. Sure Start Children’s Centres are a great leveller in our society. Kids from all walks of life mix and learn together. Parents can further their education and gain vital support. Take them away or force them to make cutbacks, and we'll see the next generation really suffer. This makes no social or economic sense.”

Anand Shukla, acting Chief Executive of Daycare Trust said:

Sally Russell of Netmums said:

“Children’s Centres will only be saved by local parents joining together to tell their councils how much they value them. Every week we’ve been seeing more mums using Netmums to develop their protests and co-ordinate their campaigns, as the extent of cuts becomes clear.  We know that the Prime Minister is keen that as part of the Big Society, local people should help to decide which services are important, and should therefore be protected. We hope that this petition will make him re-evaluate whether Sure Start funding should be offered this protection, to help limit the damage not only to services but also to our children’s futures.”