A “CLUSTER” of children’s centres, covering some of the most diverse areas of Bradford and run by a children’s charity, has officially opened.

The East Bradford Children’s Centre Cluster was created due to a Bradford Council shake up, and is now run by Action for Children on behalf of the council.

The cluster is made up of six centres, Barkerend, Communityworks in Undercliffe, Fagley, Gateway, Mortimer House and Parkland.

Although the official opening was yesterday, the charity has been running the centres since last summer.

Chief Executive of Action for Children, Sir Tony Hawkhead, attended Barkerend Children’s Centre and, along with Michael Jameson, the Council’s Director of Children’s Services, cut a ribbon to mark the partnership.

The charity has provided children’s centre services in Yorkshire for 16 years, and was one of several groups to successfully bid to run a cluster after the shake up.

The council first announced that it was changing the way its 41 children’s centres were run in 2014.

Instead of each centre having its own management committee, they would be merged into seven clusters, each run by a different group.

However, the scheme was beset by delays - despite the original plan being for the clusters to all be up and running by late 2015, many were not operating under their new structures until last summer.

Amanda Taylor, Operational Director of Children’s Services at Action for Children said: “We are delighted to be working in Bradford and running the six children’s centres in the east of the city. Our aim locally is to build on the existing good practice in place and to use the experience of our staff and partners to continue with, and develop, services.

“The children’s centres work in very diverse areas with a mix of different communities and a range of cultural backgrounds.

“The cluster aims to bring about an integration of these communities and our staff are successfully working across the whole cluster in order to achieve this.

“Although this was the official opening, we have been operating the centres since August. In that time we have provided a range of support and advice to families locally on everything from debt through to behaviour management and support to access nursery provision.

“We are very appreciative of the warm reception we have already received from partners’, children, families and the council since taking over the contract. We have a very strong relationship with Bradford Council and look forward to developing that over the duration of the contract.”