Cherry Lane, Charville, Harefield, Coteford and Oak Farm children's centres could close. Cabinet decides on 22 October whether to consult from November.

Five of Hillingdon’s nine children’s centres would close under plans going to the council’s Cabinet on Thursday 22 October. They are Cherry Lane, Charville, Harefield, Coteford and Oak Farm.

Cabinet is not being asked to close them yet. It is being asked to approve a six-week public consultation, starting in November, on a new shape for the borough’s services for families with young children (Hillingdon Council, Cabinet report). A final decision would come back to Cabinet in February 2027.

What is proposed

Hillingdon now runs four Family Hubs and nine children’s centres. Under the plan:

  • four Family Hubs stay: Uxbridge, Hayes, South Ruislip and West Drayton
  • three children’s centres become Family Hubs: Yiewsley, Yeading and Pinkwell
  • a new Family Hub in Hayes Town, if suitable premises can be found and afforded
  • five children’s centres close as places where services are delivered: Cherry Lane, Charville, Harefield, Coteford and Oak Farm
  • Colham Manor could become a Child Health Hub, if the NHS Integrated Care Board agrees
  • around 13 “Network Sites” in partner buildings would run regular, advertised sessions
  • more outreach, in schools, nurseries, health centres, libraries, faith and community venues, and “suitable” cafés and leisure centres

Services would be organised in three localities and six clusters lined up with school catchments, covering all 21 wards.

The five centres, and the nearest hub left

All five open 8.45am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, for families with children aged up to five, according to the council’s directory. These are the distances to the nearest Family Hub that would remain or be created, measured in a straight line between postcodes:

Centre proposed for closure Address Nearest remaining hub Distance
Harefield High Street, Harefield UB9 6BT Uxbridge, Civic Centre 4.1 miles
Coteford Fore Street, Eastcote HA5 2HX South Ruislip, The Wren 1.9 miles
Charville Bury Avenue, Hayes UB4 8LF Hayes, College Way 1.6 miles
Oak Farm Windsor Avenue, Hillingdon UB10 9PD Uxbridge, Civic Centre 1.2 miles
Cherry Lane Sipson Road, West Drayton UB7 9DL West Drayton, Platinum Jubilee Leisure Centre 0.5 miles

Harefield is the outlier. Its centre is the only one in the village, and the nearest hub left would be at the Civic Centre in Uxbridge, about four miles south. The report does not name which Network Sites or outreach venues would serve Harefield.

Why the council wants to change

The council’s papers argue that Family Hub provision is “not sufficiently concentrated” where deprivation and the number of young children are highest. They name Hayes, Yiewsley, Yeading, Pinkwell and Hayes Town as the priority areas (Appendix C). The equality assessment says need is concentrated in parts of the south of the borough (Appendix B).

It rejects keeping the current network because that would retain “the current uneven distribution and identified access gaps including the low take up of some services in the north of the borough”. Keeping every site and adding hubs, it says, would need money “not evidenced in the proposal”.

The aim, in the report’s words, is to move “from a primarily building-led pattern of provision” to one built around where families “live, learn and seek help”.

What the papers say about families now

The equality assessment published with the report gives these figures (Appendix B):

  • more than 13,000 families and 80,000 attendances were recorded from April 2024 to March 2025
  • 1,957 families were supported through outreach in 2025/26
  • 498 parents and carers answered the October 2025 service survey, and all of them recommended the service, while asking for more sessions and easier booking
  • the borough has 24,371 children aged up to five, 8% of its population at the 2021 Census

The papers do not give usage figures for each centre. The report says those, with travel and access analysis for each site, will come in the final report.

The money

The report says there are no financial implications “at this stage”, because nothing is decided. A separate appendix says the plan “releases recurring savings”, but no figure is published. The report’s risk table says there are “no planned redundancies”.

Two school agreements

Some centres sit on primary school sites. The report says the shared service agreements with Colham Manor and Oak Farm primary schools “remain unsigned despite continued efforts to resolve”. It adds that “Oak Farm School has issued notice to cease operations at the end of the financial year, with its future under review by the Vanguard Learning Trust”. It does not spell out whether that notice covers the children’s centre on the site.

The timetable

When What
Thursday 22 October 2026 Cabinet decides whether to consult
November to December 2026 Six-week public consultation
December 2026 to January 2027 Responses analysed, plans revised
February 2027 Final proposals back to Cabinet for a decision; notices to schools, including a three-month notice period where needed
April 2027 Target launch of the new model

The council has a legal duty to consult before closing a children’s centre or significantly changing its services, under section 5D of the Childcare Act 2006. The report says the aim is that no site closes before replacement arrangements are working.

What it means for you

  • Nothing changes yet. All nine children’s centres stay open while the consultation runs, and no closure is decided before February 2027.
  • Have your say in November. The consultation plan includes an online survey, paper surveys, telephone or assisted completion, drop-ins and sessions at the hubs (Appendix A). We will publish the link when it opens.
  • If you use Harefield, Coteford, Charville, Oak Farm or Cherry Lane, the consultation is where to say how far you could travel, and which local venues would work for you.
  • Cabinet meets in public at 7pm on Thursday 22 October in Committee Room 6 at the Civic Centre, Uxbridge (Cabinet agenda).

Opening times and contact details for every hub and centre are on the council’s family hubs page.

The same Cabinet meeting will consider a plan to move garden waste to fortnightly wheeled bins: our garden waste story has the detail.

Sources