£2.2m project to ensure all babies across South Yorkshire have a bed

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard and Rotherham council leader Chris Read met staff during their visit to Brookfield Family and Children's Centre at Swinton. The visit coincided with the Mayor's announcement of his £2.2m Beds for Babies: A Safe Place to Sleep programme, which will guarantee a moses basket, cot, cotbed or crib for any 0-5 year old who needs it across South Yorkshire and complements the council's Baby Pack initiative.

South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard visited Swinton’s Brookfield Family and Children’s Centre as part of the launch of the Beds for Babies project.

The scheme will provide a moses basket, cot or toddler bed for anyone across the region who needs it, following referral.

In a meeting at Rotherham town hall last Wednesday (13), Mr Coppard noted that one in nine Sheffield babies goes home from hospital without a safe place to sleep.

“That’s the position we find ourselves in now, as a country and indeed as a region,” he added. “Babies going home and sleeping in bathtubs, in drawers and even in bouncy chairs.

“Having a safe space to sleep is one of the fundamentals of early childhood.

“We can make a huge difference to education, health and social outcomes later in life as well as reducing the real-life financial pressures facing many families in South Yorkshire right now.

The four-year project – developed with partners including charities Baby Basics UK and Save the Children UK – was approved at South Yorkshire mayoral meeting on March 12.

Rotherham council leader Cllr Chris Read said the move would complement RMBC’s new policy of giving “baby packs” of useful items to families of all newborns in the borough.

He added: “The pressures on families are only increasing, and for some new parents the cost of providing new beds and cots is one of the things they really struggle with.

“Sadly that’s a growing concern when hundreds more Rotherham families are living in poverty than only a few years ago.

“So alongside the support that the council is able to offer and our new baby packs that will start being distributed later this year, the mayor’s safe place to sleep scheme aims to address these specific issues.”

He added: “It was great to have him join us in Swinton, where we’ll host the Rotherham part of this pilot programme.

“But it was equally saddening to hear from our staff about the families who are going without, whose babies are sleeping in prams and car seats at the moment, and for whom this kind of project will make a real difference.”