Rumours about reductions to the Children's Fund have been going around for months. Now that the national cuts have been decided - 15 per cent in 2004/5 and 30 per cent in 2005/6 - local programmes are waiting for decisions on their own allocations.
The cuts have left a bitter taste in the mouths of people who work in children's services. They find it hard to believe Government rhetoric about the importance of children's services when they see funds being taken away from programmes that directly serve children.
"It sends us a very confusing message when the green paper is about to be put to parliament as a Bill," says Kate Oliver, programme director of Birmingham Children's Fund. As the biggest local Children's Fund in the UK, it was receiving 6m each year to spend on programmes for children at risk of social exclusion.
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