FAMILIES in East Oxford could be boosted by more funding for children’s services but some parents ‘need convincing’ to come back following cuts to children’s centres.

Oxfordshire County Council has given East Oxford Primary School £20,000 to run Stay and Play sessions for under fives and also baby classes.

But it has asked for £42,000 and missed out money for outreach support to families in the area and towards renting the space for sessions.

The council was 'uncomfortable' about paying rent to the school but changed its mind after clarification the sessions would be run at East Oxford Children’s Centre - owned by the council - instead.

But Kathy Peto, from Oxfordshire Parenting Forum, speaking on behalf of the group, said the outreach support was crucial.

She said: “The kind of work needed in the East Oxford community is to encourage people to come back to use the Stay and Play services, particularly people from the Asian community.

“They won’t do that unless we have time to go out into the community and convince them to make use of what we are offering.

She added: “It’s also about ensuring people are ready for their children to come into school and all kinds of things that are necessary for that.”

Shadow cabinet member for children's services, Jamila Azad, urged the council to waive the rent and said many families in the area would benefit from the services.

“East Oxford is an extremely diverse area with a high number of refugees, asylum seekers and ethnic minority families.

“Many experience isolation and we need to give them community inclusion.”

Cabinet member for local communities, Mark Gray, said the council could not approve the funding of an outreach programme as the criteria was for ‘universal open access’ services and no other group had been given money for such work.

However Mr Gray said there wouldn't be a problem with waiving the first year's rent as that had been granted to other groups.

Tuesday's cabinet meeting dished out the final round of the council's £1m transition fund given to community groups to continue services following closures to children's centres.

Benson Little Acorns - a group wanting to create a new centre for children aged 0-5 - received £22,000, Didcot APUK was awarded £6,096 and The Comfort Trust - also in East Oxford - got £2,729.

A decision on the final amount given to East Oxford Primary School and St Edburg's Church, Kingsmere was deferred.