Centre For Teenage Mums To Close In Nottingham
23 February 2016, 17:26 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
It's been confirmed that an education centre for teenage mums in Nottingham WILL close.
The Beckhampton Centre costs the city council £400,000 a year to run and it believes the girls would benefit from going to mainstream schools instead.
MP for Nottingham North Graham Allen has been campaigning to keep it open and told Capital many of the girls won't go back to school.
When proposals were announced to close the centre, Graham Allen also told Capital:
"We know that the Centre works not only because of the fantastic testimonies of young mums who have gone through the Centre and have been able to make a good life for themselves and their babies but also because the teen pregnancy rate has dramatically fallen over the time in Nottingham North.
For many teen mums Beckhampton was the single reason why they were able to finish school and obtain qualification such as GCSEs, something they would not be able to do in mainstream schools.
The Centre is a classic example of how short terms savings will cost us more in the long run. I know times are hard, the Government is cruelly reducing money going to our council. I fully understand that. However, this facility is not the problem but part of the answer since it actually saves a lot of money."
