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News story about offering families free vouchers for healthy food and activities here although their link to the Swapathon website does not work, lol.
In general, anything healthy and for free should be good but I do agree with the misgivings about the corporate involvement. Also.....if the way that you access these vouchers is through an online application, what about the many many families that are not online-reported only last week to include the poorest families....ie the ones who would potentially benefit most from this initiative!
Hmm I wonder? If so, that reminds me of the Industrial Revolution where worksers were paid in vouchers that could only be redeemed in the mill-owner's shop!
I dont like the idea at all, it wont make it affordable for any of us just looks good on paper.
This story has been well hidden, I am not a fan of sure start but I`m sure that for some people it is a good thing that they will miss.
Wow, I had not heard about that, tired mum.
Sure Start do some fab work with young families and the whole point of Children's Centres was to have all services available at one delivery point for families, and in their communities, I know this because I was part of the consultation process for the local ones up here.
Personally, I think that after the massive expenditure on premises, it would have been better to use them to help families with children of ALL ages. Also with the cuts in Legal Aid and the promise to roll out widespread mediation, they need somewhere for this to take place!
They have definitely kept this well hidden, its not in any other news sources that I have read and I try to read as many as possible.
It is very worrying that they are saying that volunteers will take them over?????? I am concerned as to child protection issues with that one, we will have to watch over the coming weeks and see what develops with this.
All volunteers working with vulnerable people (including children) have to have CRB clearance by law.
Who will these volunteers be though? (Given that no-one on JSA can have a long-term commitment to voluntary work) Will we be back to the bad old days of Lady Bountiful?
Hi Louise,
I know about CRB, I have one.
They are talking of community groups taking them over, volunteers are great BUT they will not be qualified to do what sure Start do now will they? It is all very worrying.
Vouchers for gym membership. Yes, helllooooo - how are single parents meant to access that when we have no one else to look after our children so we can actually go to the gym??
Sounds to me like a stupid soundbite gimmick worse than all the stuff they criticised about the previous Govt.
ficurnow thats made me smile, you are so right!!!!!!!!
Excellent news, thanks Iz !
Louise have you looked at the swapathon website? I am very sceptical of it, you have to fill in a questionaire and looking at the swaps well can anyone here afford to make smoothies, just one example but not at all impressed with it.
Tiredmum, I agree!
However, I don't think they'd dare put up stuff like swapping going without food altogether when there is no money at all, in exchange for going through foodshop bins and salvaging packaged food thrown out at the sell-by date. I'm not even joking, I've done it myself, though I did laugh when it was trendified by being called 'Freeganism' and made out to be a lifestyle choice!
Hi harissa
Thats really made me chuckle, just imagine if they did say "if you can afford it buy a smoothie but if not then do without"or have a good old rumage through the bin outside the shop.
I know what you mean about the sell quickly marked down items, I do it all the time, actually I quite enjoy the challenge of seeing how little I can spend and how many bags of food I can get.
Years ago my friend and I used to go queue for the food mountain surplus, she had 6 children and I then had 4, we got quite good at queueing for items and did discover that you could in fact visit more than one place as lots of people didnt like to go as it was free food, we had stewed steak with everything for months xxx
After my initial cynicism, I joined the site. So now I'm back with qualified cynicism :o)
I lost points on answering the drink question because I would not swap drinking out of short fat glasses for tall narrow glasses. My glasses are ex-nutella jars dating from the days of my older kids, when we could afford stuff like chocolate hazlenut spread.
I did agree to add soda to wine but am expected to do this on Friday... so now, I suppose, I'm going to have to buy wine to put some soda in ;o) Hmmm, when could I last afford wine? Where's my money off voucher?
And yes, I remember queing for handouts of free butter. Happy days! X
Oh heck I had not looked at the website, it was not working when I found the scheme and when Iz reported it was working, I did not have time to look as was going to see clients. I will have a proper look tomorrow....although it sounds from what you both say that it is totally unrealistic. Why am I not surprised?
Hi Louise,
It will give you a chuckle if nothing else
Have just had a look.
Do you know, I never would have thought that eating a piece of fresh fruit was healthier than a slice of cake! You learn something new every day 
One of my swaps was to make sure that I tailored son's portions as he does not need the same as me. Too right he doesn't: he is six foot two and at the gym three times a week as well as boxing.
On the plus side, the website is easy to use and has a red-amber-green status for each aspect of your family's lifestyle, which makes it simple to understand. I also like the way it is not too stern, as users will need to feel that changes are within their capability. The money-off voucher aspect also acknowledges that healthy food can be more expensive.
Could this be the beginning of the issue of vouchers instead of benefit payments, which media seem to like the idea of?