Council funded play sessions for toddlers have been suspended due to staff shortages.

Stay and Play sessions Marsden and Honley were cancelled at short notice earlier this month, sparking anger among parents.

Kirklees Council has admitted struggling to find staff to supervise the low-cost sessions which aim to help parents and children make new friends.

But the council said the closures were temporary and were not connected to an overhaul of children’s support services designed to save Kirklees £10m.

Parents, who regularly took their babies and toddlers to the sessions, have expressed their anger having received a letter on September 2.

Sessions were held at Marsden Mechanics Hall and Honley Community Centre, Stoney Lane.

Honley Community Centre
Honley Community Centre

One parent, Laura Stimpson, from Netherton, said: “Closing these groups and taking away the play workers will isolate mums.

“It will prevent babies from socialising and learning through play.

“It will prevent issues from being raised and dealt with early.

“It will exclude those mums on low incomes who can’t afford to attend private play sessions – the average cost of led private play is £4.50 per session.”

Ms Stimpson added: “On top of these issues I also find it heartless that the groups stopped so suddenly.

“With warning, parents from the closed sessions would have had the opportunity to exchange contact details and arrange to meet up independently.”

Kirklees Council said the sessions would resume as soon as sufficient staff were recruited.

It added there were no plans to scrap the sessions.

A council spokesman said: “There was an issue relating to staffing levels at a small number of our centres which meant that unfortunately some sessions had to be temporarily cancelled at short notice.

Honley Community Centre
Honley Community Centre

“This is in no way connected to the plans to go out to consultation on the future delivery of early help services.

“We recognise that this will have been difficult for parents to manage, but would like to reassure them that we have no plans to reduce services at this time.

“Where we have pressures relating to staff vacancies we are reviewing these on an individual basis. We will be letting people know that services will be delivered as normal.”

A consultation on an unrelated shake-up of children and young people’s services starts next week.

The spokesman added: “The consultation process is due to start on September 27 and run for eight weeks until November 22, subject to approval from cabinet.

“We know parents and families really value the sessions they attend, and we hope they will take part in the consultation when it starts.”