One of Jersey’s largest children’s charities, Centrepoint, is celebrating the expansion of its unique supported childcare provision, ‘The Space’, and launching its new brand this week.
Centrepoint, which has provided families in Jersey with essential childcare for more than 35 years, is officially opening The Space which is the island’s only facility incorporating a breakfast, after school, weekend and holiday club for children with complex or additional needs, and a holiday club for children with higher-level specialist needs. Following overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents, Centrepoint has committed to expanding these much-needed services.
The childcare charity, which also runs two nurseries, child-first learning from babies to pre-schoolers, and offers playcare services, term-time and in school holidays for 4 to 14-year-olds, held a celebration which was attended by its patron, The Countess of Jersey, at its Green Street Nursery on Monday 1 st November.
“We have always taken pride in supporting our families in every way we could, and it became very clear that there was a huge void in the services available to these children. Over the past year we have taken the opportunity to take a breath and reflect on our organisation, and the services that we provide. We undertook a strategic review, examining how we can most effectively deliver on our purpose; to make sure that childcare is possible for every family in Jersey,” said Jane Moy, CEO of Centrepoint.
“As part of this review we have also developed a new brand and strapline – ‘Children at the heart of everything we do’ – developed by brand agency, The Beach, that reflects more clearly who we are, what our team stand for, and the wonderful children that drive us forward every day. It has also allowed us to remind our team just how valued they are. Our new brand, new website – centrepoint.je – and social accounts will help to increase awareness of our range of childcare services and connect people to our volunteering opportunities and channels to donate to, in order to enable us to help more families.”
The Space is currently situated in a purpose-designed area at the charity’s La Pouquelaye site, with the specialist holiday club located within a local primary school. The next step will be to move into purpose-built premises catering specifically for these children. This will enable Centrepoint to expand its After School, Weekend Club and Holiday Club provision by working alongside and supporting other organisations which also specialise in the care of children with complex or specialist needs.
“We were already providing high-quality Short Breaks and Holiday Care for young people between 4-11 years with complex or additional needs, but following pleas from a number of parents who could not find suitable after school care, our team worked within a very tight timescale to launch the supported after school club to accommodate these children as they had nowhere else to go. The Space After School Club is the only formal supported after school club in the island, caring for children who attend a specialised setting or attend a mainstream school with additional support.”
“The various clubs that The Space offers enable parents to live a normal life – whether it is going to work, spending quality time with each other or their other children, or even just having a bit of ‘me’ time to relax,” added Mrs Moy.
Since its launch in 1984, Centrepoint has been listening to the community and developing its services.
Through its ESML scheme, the charity provides fully-subsidised emergency childcare for families that have suffered some adversity or a setback that sees them needing emergency, short-term childcare assistance. It also provides heavily subsidised medium and long-term child care and a financial assistance scheme for parents.
“We are committed not only to expanding the services we offer, but also to playing even more of a key role in supporting children and families within the community whose needs are greatest. We feel no child or family should be disadvantaged and we are committed to making care and learning through play accessible to everyone by apportioning a percentage of our revenue and running specific fundraisers to support this. We work closely with government, playing an increasingly pivotal role in supporting children and families in areas which may be challenging or of no commercial interest to regular childcare providers,” concluded Mrs Moy.
Supporting over 450 of the island’s children, Centrepoint maintains 140 full and part-time employees.
