Financial squeeze hits Sure Start and youth provision hardest, LGA study confirms

The research by the Local Government Association (LGA) found that youth services were the worst hit, with one in five local authorities identifying provision for young people as the area in which the council planned to make proportionally the biggest cuts.

The survey also revealed that two-thirds of councils are planning to make savings by cutting Sure Start.

Of these, 62 per cent of authorities said they planned to refocus services on the most vulnerable families, while 41 per cent said they would target the most deprived neighbourhoods. Despite this, 63 per cent of councils are seeking to protect children’s social care from cuts.

Meanwhile, councils are exploring different ways of saving cash. More than two-thirds of local authorities said they had started sharing services with another council, while 16 per cent said they had made changes to the way the authority is structured in order to make necessary savings.

A further 57 per cent are making similar structural changes and 26 per cent said they were planning to do so within the next two years.

Baroness Margaret Eaton, chairman of the LGA, said the survey shows that local authorities are working hard to protect the services that people care about most.

But she admitted that councils are dealing with an unprecedented squeeze on their finances, with some seeing their government funding cut by up to 17 per cent.

"The fact that the cuts have been frontloaded and councils have had to make the largest spending reductions in the first year has limited their ability to make savings through conventional efficiency drives, such as shared services," she explained.

"No councillor goes into politics to cut services to the residents who elected them. But local politicians have had to make incredibly tough decisions in recent weeks about the services they continue to provide and those they are having to reduce.

"Where resources are under pressure, the survey shows that councils are targeting services at those most in need, while at the same time taking steps to reduce the cost of bureaucracy and management."