Children's Centres in Wiltshire

Listed on our ask wiltshire website we have complete details of SureStart Children's Centres across the community areas of Wiltshire. To search a Children's Centre in your area, please visit our website: http://www.askwiltshire.org/info-centre/childrens-centres/

What is a Children's Centre? The main purpose of a Children's Centre is to provide support for parents, carers and their under 5's so that all children can be happy, healthy and achieve great things in life. The Government's vision is for a Children's Centre in every community. Currently there are 29 Children's Centres in Wiltshire.

Some Children's Centres have nurseries or pre-schools running alongside; many offer drop-in facilities, Stay and Play sessions, breastfeeding support groups, Family Learning programmes, Dad's Groups, Health Visitor Clinics, Jobcentre Plus advice about job opportunities and training, parenting groups, access to information from other services such as ask, CAB and Home-Start along with other groups and services which are helpful to local families.

The aim of Sure Start Children’s Centres is to improve outcomes for all children. They are a vital part of the Government’s ten-year childcare strategy to enable all families with children to have access to an affordable, flexible, high-quality childcare place for their child.

Parent and Carer Childcare Survey 2010

Wiltshire Council Childcare Survey

"Do you have a child or children aged 0-14 (under 18 with a difficulty or disability)? If so, please complete this questionnaire for the chance to win one of ten £20 book tokens! There is also a survey for children and young people at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/childcare. Please encourage your child/children to complete it.

Wiltshire Council has a duty to assess whether there are sufficient childcare facilities in Wiltshire to enable parents to work or train leading to work as far as reasonably practicable. Your views will be invaluable in helping us to carry out that assessment. The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment Report will be available for consultation on the Wiltshire Council website from November 2010 to February 2011. The finished report will be published in March 2011."

This is a Wiltshire Council Survey and not an ask wiltshire survey but we hope you find the link useful: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/parentsurvey2010web.htm

We are recruiting: Finance/Contracts Officer

22 hours per week office based - Steeple Ashton initial one year contract

A full driving licence and access to a car are essential. As a suitable applicant you will be someone who is well organised, confident and self motivated, with a desire and ability to work in a team. You will have experience at a senior level in the finance function of either a public or private sector organisation, with proven business and financial planning skills, to include an accountancy qualification.

For full application pack/process please visit our main website. Closing date 30th April 2010.

Working Women: Non-Stop Dynamos!

As blogged by 'parentdish' today new research into the lives of working Mums in the UK has 'revealed that many spend an average of three hours on the go before they even get to work'.

As a 'working Mum' myself it is so true. My day usually begins by 7am (sometimes earlier) and before leaving the house around 9am I have usually fed/changed/dressed & entertained my toddler, unloaded the dishwasher, cleared down any overnight work emails, got myself showered/dressed/vaguely made-up/fed & cleaned my teeth, packed my Son's nursery bag, hung the washing on the line ... need I go on!?

Parentdish report "The study, for Hovis Wholemeal Breakfast Week, questioned 1,000 mums working outside the home about their morning routine. It found them engaged in thrilling tasks including ironing, making the bed and styling their children's hair. Sixty percent of women of women said that their day is well under way by 7am, and rarely slows until they go to bed just before 11pm. But the good news is that we're using around 500 calories simply by doing these pre-work chores and getting the family ready – the equivalent to over one hour on a bicycle." It goes on"Unfortunately, despite their action-packed schedules, a quarter of working mums (25%) admit that they regularly go without breakfast; whilst 59% of those that eat it, spend less than five minutes doing so and 32% don't even sit down. Almost half of mums (48%) cite a lack of time as a reason to skip breakfast, whilst almost one in seven say they do so to lose weight. But despite many missing breakfast themselves, British mums are spending an average of 18 minutes preparing breakfast or lunch for their families before work. On average, working mothers spend only six minutes on their own make-up in the morning, in contrast to 28 minutes spent dressing their children, styling their hair and helping them to clean their teeth."

Go to Parentdish to read the full blog post