A group of parents of preschool children in Paulton are rallying together to form a new community playgroup, 'MessyTots@Paulton', to prevent the closure of their much-loved Messy Play Group. The group was formerly run by local Children's Centre services, but the support is being withdrawn due to Government cuts and redirection of funds.
The longstanding group, Paulton Messy Play, has provided a place for local parents to bring their preschool children on Thursday mornings for many years at Paulton Scout, Guide and Community Hall. The group offers differing activities each week, which encourage exploration, imagination, creative play and development of key skills: from having fun with jelly in the tub, to making pretend ice creams from foam, making playdoh or smoothies, painting and craft activities, a cosy tepee with books and cushions, pushchairs, toys for imaginative roleplay and for the tiny ones, a baby area with age appropriate and sensory toys. In addition to these fun and exciting activities, the group offer valuable advice and support to parents who may need some extra help in a time of need, signposting them to local Children's Centre services and family advice. Many members have found this invaluable and this is one of the key reasons the parents do not want the group to cease.
Despite the loss of the Children's Centre services support in running the group from July, the organisation have been able to provide support and training for the parent volunteers of the group. Speaking this week, Charley O'Connell, Chairperson of the new MessyTots@ Paulton group said: "We think it is really important to continue to provide a fun, welcoming and exciting playgroup for all. There is no other group in the community like ours, so we must fight to keep it going."
The new Messy Tots@Paulton group plan to open their doors on 6th November this year and run every Thursday (term time) from 10 a.m. – 11.30 a.m. at Paulton Scout, Guide and Community Hall, Plumptre Road, Paulton. In order to do so, however, they will be looking for both extra volunteers to help with the weekly tasks of running the group and above all, they need to raise funds for the initial start-up and then ongoing costs of running the group (to include insurance, rent, provision of healthy snacks, purchase of quality toys and equipment). They will be contacting local enterprises and organisations to ask for help and they would appreciate any kind donations, advice or support.
If you feel you can help keep this playgroup running, please get in touch – they look forward to hearing from you. For more information, contact Charley on: 07791 746606, email: [email protected]">[email protected] or find the group on Facebook: messytotsatpaulton
Bath and North East Somerset Liberal Democrat Cabinet has agreed to restructure Children's Centres based on cuts of £1.5m, and to support a 'right to provide' request which could see Children's Centre staff set up a staff mutual to run the service in the future. Cllr Liz Hardman (Labour, Paulton), said: "The B&NES Labour Group and families using Children's Centre services have successfully campaigned to reduce the scale of the cuts to Children's Centres, which were originally set at £2.3 million. The additional money has helped to reduce the impact of the cuts on the most vulnerable children.
"However, the cuts remain very significant. Children's Centre staff believe that if they are allowed to run the Children's Centres themselves, they will be able to provide more services with less direct B&NES funding. The Labour Group will continue to campaign for Children's Centres and the services they provide by lobbying for transitional money to help set up a staff-run organisation as quickly as possible, so that the universal services which are being cut, such as Messy Play, can be allowed to continue."