Children's services bear the brunt of grant cuts

By Lauren Higgs Thursday, 26 January 2012

Children and young people are being hit hardest by cuts to local authority grants, research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found.

Deprived local authorities subjected to the biggest cuts. Image: Arlen Connelly

The in-depth analysis looked at how 25 local authorities are coping with the "severe contraction in grant income" that followed the emergency budget and subsequent comprehensive spending review in 2010.

Researchers found that children’s services were seriously affected across the board, with deprived local authorities subjected to the biggest cuts and comparatively "mild" reductions to spending power in more affluent areas.

In 19 out of the 25 authorities, the study found that reductions to grants led directly to cuts in frontline children and young people’s service provision, although six councils managed to target spending reductions to back-office functions.

Children and young people’s services were also harshly affected by job losses. "One authority reported 150 posts deleted and another 100 as a consequence of the emergency budget," the report said. "Others reported smaller numbers. In one affluent authority there were between 35 and 40 redundancies as a result of cuts to specialist children’s services."

Nine authorities told researchers that the emergency budget alone had a substantial impact on children’s services, even before the comprehensive spending review, with play schemes, youth volunteering projects and specialist support in schools "the casualties mentioned most often".

A senior executive from a deprived Conservative authority told the study: "Something like 90 per cent of the headline cut was a reduction in specific grants for children’s services. A lot of that was specialist support, youth centres and some children’s centres."

A senior member of staff from a deprived Labour authority added: "The main impact was on children’s services. We had to stop a lot of temporary non-statutory initiatives such as youth work and lots of education projects as we had used additional funding for school improvement officers."

Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the most vulnerable are being hit with the "double impact" of larger cuts that need to be made quickly.

"While we accept that local authorities need to make spending cuts, it is essential that people in communities that are already struggling do not suffer more than others," she said.

Glen Bramley, author of the report, added: "Despite some services used by all groups being significantly reduced, the impact of service provision cuts will fall more heavily on disadvantaged people who rely on public services. Unlike the more well-off, they are less able to supplement the loss of public services, such as childcare, libraries and youth clubs, with private provision."