CONSULTATION | Hampstead Community Centre

Hampstead Community Centre

Report on Public Consultation 2026

INTRODUCTION

As we approach our 50th Anniversary we have been asking the local community to help us to shape the community centre for the decades to come. We recently ran a public consultation exercise to give everyone a chance to tell us what matters most to local people. Our aim was to engage with local users and the wider community to better understand what services they value.

PROCESS

The consultation was publicised as widely as possible, including posters in the community centre, print adverts in local newspapers and magazines, and regular posts on our social media channels. Anyone who wanted to take part could register to do so on our website. Registration was open from October to November 2025, and the online survey then ran from November to December 2025.

RESPONSE RATE

We do not currently retain a mailing list and therefore were unable to send the survey out directly to all those who use our services. Instead, we relied on advertising and invited people to take part.

The response rate was low, with fewer than 30 people registering their interest, and only 9 people subsequently completing the survey itself. Despite the low response, the insight and feedback we did receive was valuable and we are grateful to all those who took the time to share their thoughts and suggestions. It was especially great to see how much people appreciate our current services, in particular the After School Club and holiday play schemes for children.

SURVEY RESULTS

We have summarised the main survey results as follows:

Activities requested

We asked what types of activities people would be interested in taking part in, if they were available. The following were most popular (ranked in order of choice):

Health and wellbeing
Community
Children and family
Culture
Creative
Young people
Seniors

We will use this insight in planning new activities for the future.

Advice services requested

We asked what advice and support services people would like to see the centre providing. The following were most popular (ranked in order of choice):

Training
Education
Housing
Benefits
English language classes
Digital skills
Employment

We will use this insight in planning new advice services for the future.

What more should the centre be doing

The survey included a variety of open questions where people could have their say. In response to what more the centre could be doing the major themes were as follows:

After School Club volunteering opportunities for young people
After School Club pick up service
Use of the foyer and other centre spaces for activities
Opportunities for independent traders to use the centre during the week

We’ve looked at all these suggestions and provide some initial answers here:

After School Club volunteering opportunities for young people

The After School Club is a popular and valuable local resource providing a fun play opportunity for local children and reliable, affordable after school care for their parents and caregivers. This was borne out in the answers to our survey which was described as a” fantastic service to the community”.

The After School Club is regulated by Ofsted and is run by the centre according to Department of Education guidelines. Activities are aimed at children aged 4-12 years and provided by a team of qualified and experienced staff. Places are limited to 40 a day, with a ratio of 1:8 adults to children as required by Ofsted.

In the past we allowed young people under the age of 16 to volunteer with the Club. We recognise the value that volunteering offers to young people, and the value that young people can offer to the Club, but unfortunately, we can no longer accept volunteers under 18, and this is not something we plan to reintroduce.

As a regulated care setting, we had to stop accepting volunteers under 16 primarily because they cannot be subject to enhanced DBS checks which are mandatory for both staff and volunteers working with children. In addition, under 18s are legally children themselves, and require mandatory supervision by an adult. They must themselves be protected under safeguarding requirements, which increases the burden on staff and requires us to increase staff ratios to supervise volunteers, even if the number of children attending the Club is below the required ratio of 1 adult to 8 children. Young volunteers do not count towards this ratio.

We are however going to look at whether we can offer alternative volunteering opportunities to young people outside of our childcare settings.

After School Club pick up service

As part of our commitment to supporting the local community, we partner with three Hampstead primary schools to offer a pick-up service for children coming to After School Club. Pick up is available from Fitzjohn’s School, New End and Hampstead Parochial schools. This is particularly helpful for working parents who require regular after school care and for local families with children of different ages juggling multiple school pick-ups.

The pick-up service remains available, and we have no plans to stop providing it.

Use of the foyer and other centre spaces for activities

We were asked if it would be possible to use the whole centre for activities, for example an expansion of the space available to the After School Club.

The After School Club operates in the entirety of the main hall, with plenty of space available to accommodate multiple activities and the numbers of children attending. Use of the foyer and corridors is restricted by the need to meet fire regulations and protect emergency exit routes. The Club can safely provide 40 places a day, and rarely operates at full capacity, with spaces being available most days. The size of the main hall does not prevent the Club from providing plenty of fun for the children!

Opportunities for independent traders to use the centre during the week

We were asked if it would be possible to use the centre during the week for stalls run by independent traders.

Fire regulations and the need to protect emergency exit routes means that we cannot allow stalls to be set up inside the foyer. We will however look at whether we can provide other opportunities in the future for independent traders to use the centre outside of the weekend markets.

The front half of the foyer must be kept clear at all times as it is the primary fire exit route for the building in the event of an emergency. We are also unable to host traders in the back half of the foyer whilst Children’s Activities are taking place.

We will however look at whether we can provide other opportunities in the future for independent traders to use the centre outside of the weekend markets. During December, markets took place over three weekdays and these proved to be popular.

CONCLUSIONS

This stage of our public consultation has now ended. Thank you to all those who took part - we will be using all the feedback we received in planning future activities and reviewing the services we provide. We are always happy to hear from members of our community with any ideas or suggestions particularly in respect of new activities that you’d like to see taking place. These can be sent to the team via our general enquiry email address hello@hampsteadcommunitycentre.co.uk