main content Community Vision realised

Sure Start Penge is pleased to announce that its new centre Community Vision is open. To mark the occasion, local families were invited to a celebration day on Saturday 18 June to enjoy a party atmosphere with fun activities, meet Bob the Builder, the Mayor of Bromley Councillor Mrs Joan Wykes OBE and Sure Start workers, and help us plant a tree.

Community Vision is unique in Bromley - the first of its kind to bring direct support and early intervention services for families with children under five years old.

Building work on the new centre commenced in January 2004 and, from this month, Community Vision is open to all Sure Start Penge families. The building, situated in Chestnut Grove, off Woodbine Grove, Penge, is a purpose-built centre providing childcare, health and social care services for local families all under one roof. It also houses the administrative staff of the Sure Start Penge programme.

The Sure Start Penge programme has been providing a wide range of support services for SE20 families since 2001 and building the new centre was part of its plan for the Penge and Anerley community from the beginning.

The programme received a capital grant of £1m from the DfES Sure Start Unit and a £55,000 grant from the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative to establish the new centre and provide its comprehensive services from one place. The site of the former Groves Day Nursery was chosen, allowing for an existing service to be improved and a central location for the new facilities.

Sure Start Penge offers 74 different kinds of childcare, health and social care services, including a shop in Penge High Street, and is supported by 23 members of staff and other service providers working alongside the Community Vision Nursery.

For a full list of services and more information on Sure Start Penge and Community Vision go to www.surestartpenge.org. 

ENDS

Note to Editors:

• Sure Start Penge is part of the national Sure Start initiative set up to tackle poverty and associated social disadvantage through early intervention. It delivers integrated services by working in partnership with the London Borough of Bromley and Bromley Primary Care Trust, as well as a number of community organisations.
• The programme has funding for 10 years and it is hoped existing services will be integrated into the mainstream after the funding period ends.
• Chronology:
  Summer 2001: set up with a catchment area of selected part of SE20, serving families with children aged up to four years
  2002: staff moved to area, set up Health and Social Care Team (see below*) and opened shop in High Street Penge.
  Spring 2004: raised upper age limit of eligible children to five and widened catchment area to whole of SE20.
  January 2004: work began on new centre to be called Community Vision.
  March 2005: work completed on new centre, administrative team moved in.
  April 2005: registered 1000th member family.
  June 2005: all services moved into new centre.
• Additional services provided through annual funding rounds have included: counselling, yoga, swimming, family advocacy, support for ethnic minority and refugee groups, courses, support groups, events, activities and day-trips.
• Health and Social Care Team comprising: dietician, health visitor, three midwives, speech and language therapist, breastfeeding counsellor, cranial osteopath, two family support workers, social worker, childminding network, co-ordinator, reading and literacy worker, crèche manager, training and jobshop co-ordinator, homestart worker, community information and support co-ordinator and a befriending scheme co-ordinator.

For media enquiries, please contact Jo Smith, Community Information and Communications, Sure Start Penge, by telephone on 020 8778 2970, by fax on 020 8778 6468, or email jo.smith@bromley.gov.uk.