THE unique challenges facing rural children’s centres and early years provision drew the leader of the House of Commons and high-profile Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom to Tavistock last week.

Mrs Leadsom visited Tavistock Area Children’s Centre last Friday in order to better understand early years provisions within rural communities.

She spent time with mums, babies and senior officials from Public Health, Devon County Council and Action for Children in order to gain a better understanding of family support available in rural areas in the first 1,001 days, from conception to age two.

Mrs Leadsom is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children and Conception to Age 2 group, which has set out to identify gaps in available provision and make recommendations on how co-ordination across departments can be improved and explore what more the Government can do to ensure they act early in a child’s life.

The aim is to then ask the Treasury for increased funding to support early help in the early years in the spending review which takes place in the autumn.

Mrs Leadsom has been to visit children’s centres in cities and urban locations and chose Action for Children’s Tavistock centre due to its rural setting and the vast area that it covers.

During an informal discussion with senior officials, Mrs Leadsom heard that early years teams were conducting a vast amount of outreach services to support families all across West Devon who may not be able to travel long distances, or are in an area with infrequent public transport.

Mrs Leadsom praised the rural service for the extent of its outreach: ‘I was pleased to hear that services are offered in 200 areas — even in a yurt — but it demonstrates that when they have a baby, are pregnant or have a toddler then it’s difficult to get about and people need support. It’s not convenient for people to drive 70 miles to a children’s centre, or an antenatal class. You need those services to be much more locally available.’

Communication betweens teams — health visitors, midwives and support groups — was also highlighted and Tavistock was praised for its action, outreach and high levels of referrals, which saved some people from dealing with issues on their own.

Mrs Leadsom, who has been involved in parent psychotherapy for 20 years, said that ‘getting families off to the best start in life is my passion in politics’.

‘I have had post-natal depression with my son who is 23, so I am someone who has had experience.

‘One of the biggest challenges is that of data sharing due to confidential information; whilst there are clear guidelines on this, there is always a problem with communication. What they have got right [in the Tavistock centre] is that services are collated here — with health visitors, breast feeding support groups, perinatal — and they all share information verbally without it being a big issue. It’s a great tribute to what’s going on in Devon.’

Karen Pearce, service lead for Action for Children Tavistock Area Children’s Centre, said: ‘We were pleased to meet Mrs Leadsom and have the opportunity to show her how our targeted early help services here in Tavistock can make a world of difference to vulnerable families.

‘Intervening early can stop children from coming to harm and that’s why it’s urgent Central Government increases funding for local councils so they can continue to provide these lifeline services.

‘It was good to showcase what children’s centres do in Devon and the input they give to families.’

Mrs Leadsom was asked by the Prime Minister last summer to chair the cross-Government group which comprises junior ministers from the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education, Local Government and the Treasury.

The group has been looking into how accessible services are for expectant and new parents in all areas of the country.

‘That’s been one of the angles that we’ve come at this,’ said Mrs Leadsom: ‘Depending on what your expectations are you may have no idea what your needs will be, or a really good idea but no way of finding out what’s available in the area.

‘We’ve had a huge amount of input as to what works for parents, as to what parents would like to see, a massive amount of work within departments, what services should be universal and aren’t, what we could expand on, what we could do differently, what more the Department for Education could do in practice in delivery, for example, children’s centres.’

Mrs Leadsom said she would report back at the next APPG in June on the results of the findings and what the group would be doing, saying that there was ‘an enormous amount of careful thought and research’ that had gone into the group’s work.

Pick up today’s edition of the Tavistock Times for more on the children’s centre in Tavistock and their important work.