CYP Now - Analysis: Children's Services - Councils face budget black hole

Councils across the country are complaining of huge shortfalls in their children's services budgets for 2006/07 and many fear it will hit the Every Child Matters agenda. Ruth Smith looks at how the gap came about and how councils plan to tackle it.

Nothing can escape from a black hole, not even light. Likewise,children's services are realising that there's no escaping the 600m funding shortfall awaiting them in the next financial year.

The raw reality appears to be that the poor budget settlement fromcentral government for 2006/07 is going to hit the Every Child Mattersreforms hard (Children Now, 18-24 January).

"We're essentially fire fighting, instead of engaging in preventativework," says Conservative councillor Shona Johnstone, CambridgeshireCounty Council's cabinet member for children and young people'sservices. "There's a real danger we won't be able to deliver Every ChildMatters."

Cambridgeshire is facing a 1m shortfall in its children andfamilies' budget. "Just to stand still we'd need to increase council taxby at least six per cent. But the Government wants council tax risescapped at five per cent so we're already trying to deliver more on lessresources," explains Johnstone.

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