Cotswolds MP Lands with a Hop, Skip and a Jump
23rd January 2012
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP for The Cotswolds, visited the Hop, Skip and Jump Foundation’s Seven Springs Centre last Friday (20 January) to take a tour of the centre and discuss the importance of short breaks and respite care with representatives of the Foundation.
The visit marked the second time that Mr Clifton-Brown has seen the centre, which was established in 1982 to provide Flexible, Immediate and Sustained Day Care to families with children with special needs. The Seven Springs Centre offers parents and siblings the opportunity for much needed respite and short breaks, and provides some of our most vulnerable young people, often those with severe behavioural difficulties, the chance to interact with others and enjoy themselves in a safe and supervised environment.
Commenting on his visit to the Centre, Mr Clifton-Brown said: “I very much enjoyed my visit to the Hop, Skip and Jump Foundation and I was grateful for the opportunity to see the vital work that takes place at the Seven Springs Centre in providing much needed respite for the children, their families and their carers. I must commend the dedication and patience of staff of the Seven Springs Centre in their work on behalf of some of our most disadvantaged children.“
“I had a very thorough and informative discussion with representatives of the Foundation. We discussed two topics in particular, firstly, as to what financial assistance Gloucestershire County Council could provide following the announcement by the Government in December 2010 that it would be providing more than £800 million of funding to Local Authorities to help families, including the provision of short-breaks, between 2011 and 2015. Secondly, we discussed the current arrangements the Foundation has with the County Council over its property and whether an alternative site may be more suitable to both the Foundation and the County Council.”
“On both of these issues I have written to Mark Hawthorne, the Leader of Gloucestershire County Council, and I hope to arrange a meeting between representatives of the Hop, Skip and Jump Foundation, Councillor Hawthorne and his senior officials, and myself to establish if these issues can be resolved for the benefit of some of our most needy children, their parents and carers.”
Photo: (L-R) Clarissa Mitchell, Trustee of Hop, Skip and Jump Foundation; Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP; and a child of the Seven Springs Centre.
