Councillors will be asked to approve a plan to bring back a children’s centre in one of Swindon’s most deprived areas, eight years after the last centres in the borough were closed.

The council wants to recreate an early-year learning and family centre at the Penhill Nursery site that it owns in Everleigh Road.

The project, proposed by the authority's Labour administration, to refurbish the building and the Saltway Centre in Pearl Road in Middleleaze will cost £600,000 and the centres should be open by  September 2024.

It will be put to the cabinet next week.

The plan is that the centres will provide families, and children, especially those with special educational needs or disabilities, with extra help at the start of their education.

The report to be made to cabinet by the member for children’s services Councillor Paul Dixon says: “We will make sure that we do everything we can to help children and young people with SEND achieve their goals, ambitions, and prepare for the future to live happy and fulfilling lives.

“We know from data gathered as a part of the review that children with SEND are far less likely to access their full entitlement than their peers without SEND. This proposal will ensure that more children with SEND are able to access more of their early years’ entitlement through either inclusion outreach or through specialist early years places."

The report adds: “By intervening at the very beginning of a child’s educational journey, we will be able to provide parents with the support needed to ‘navigate’ complex and unfamiliar SEND processes.

"Investing in high quality and timely support for our youngest children will lead to ‘downstream savings’. For example, improved parental mental health will lead to increased parental ability to return to work and early intervention will lead to improved educational attainment and outcomes for children. The service will also run outreach services to providers across the early years sector.”

The report says the closed and gated Penhill nursery building has been empty for four years and is in poor repair.

But it says it is sited in an area of high deprivation and high SEND need, and is easily accessible without a car.

The fact it is a council-owned building also means it will be cheaper to use in the long-term.

It means, according to the report, that help will be available at both the Saltway Centre and Penhill and will be more accessible to more people in the town.

The cabinet will meet at 6pm on Wednesday, December 13 at the Civic Offices in Euclid Street.