Barnet's children's services face 'financial Armageddon'

The Tory-run authority, dubbed "easy council" for its philosophy of supplying basic services and charging individuals for additional requirements, is facing cuts to its £12m of children service grants of between 25 and 50 per cent. The figures were revealed by head of children’s services Robert McCulloch-Graham, who said that the department was also facing cuts of 20 per cent to its core budget over the next three years.

Speaking to the council’s budgetary scrutiny committee, McCulloch-Graham likened the department’s financial position to "Armageddon", with a doubling of referrals to the department in three years combining with lengthy court cases to put children’s services under great strain, reported the Times Series.

He said that the department would be completely reshaped in the next 12 to 18 months.

"In the reshaping of services we will be doing much more targeted early intervention work, enabling families to support themselves and reducing the demand on the acute specialist and more expensive provision," he said. "In order to achieve this, we will absorb the reduction of resources in our more universal and general services."