Information service cull leaves councils as risk of failing to meet legal duties

The charity surveyed 120 councils across England and Wales, and found that 88 per cent were cutting budgets. Cuts were so severe in some areas that 34 per cent of councils did not know whether their reduced family information services complied with the Childcare Act 2006.

This specifies that county councils and unitary authorities in England and Wales must provide information on family services. Councils in England also have to provide a childcare brokerage service to parents.

Jill Rutter, Daycare Trust research manager, said many councils are saving money by amalgamating family information services into a council-wide call centre unit.

She said: "To be able to provide a good information service to families you need a good level of expertise. A lot of these call centres mainly deal with bins and fly-tipping and are unable to effectively deal with family information services calls, especially if it is something complex such as support for disabled children. Also, a lot of call centres have a time limit that the operator can talk for. This can be three minutes and the line can just go dead when that time is up."