Kent County Council Community Services public consultation

Please read this update which we have received from Kent County Council (KCC) - it may affact community services in your neighbourhood.

Kent County Council has launched a public consultation on its Community Services which runs until 26 March 2023.

The consultation proposes changes to the way we use our buildings to deliver some of our community services. We invite your feedback on our proposals as part of this consultation.

Why are we proposing changes?

The Council has experienced big increases in costs and has less money to spend. So we need to look ahead and do things differently to make sure we can still help residents in the years to come. Whilst ensuring effective support for residents who need our services, we need to

• tackle the rising costs of maintaining our many buildings
• find savings, so we can balance the budget
• reduce our carbon footprint to meet our Net-Zero ambitions.

What services are included in the proposals?

Children’s Centres and Youth Hubs, Public Health Services for Children and Families, Community Services for Adults with Learning Disabilities, Community Learning and Skills, and Gateways.

What are we proposing?

• Having fewer permanent buildings, meaning that some of our buildings would close - we want to keep buildings in areas where they are needed the most
• co-locating more of our services, meaning more than one service would be available from some of the buildings you might visit
• continuing to deliver some services by outreach, which means they do not take place in a dedicated or permanent space, but move around to when and where they are needed
• ensuring residents can continue to access services and information online.

Our proposals have been designed by considering where there is greatest need for our services.

Find out more and share your views

Please visit www.kent.gov.uk/communityservicesconsultation to view the consultation document, design handbooks, a video summarising the proposals, and the Equality Impact Assessments. You can respond via the online questionnaire (or download the Word version). If you have any queries, please contact communityservicesfeedback@kent.gov.uk.