Responsive, joined-up services: a potential silver lining to these funding cuts

Can anyone think of any good news as the cuts loom large for children and families in difficulty and for the social workers who seek to provide assistance? Some of us have been here before, managing budgets and services in the 1970s when the International Monetary Fund insisted that the UK government cut public expenditure; in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher with relish rolled back the state; and in the late 1990s when New Labour wanted to prove that it was not a tax-and-spend government.

Each occasion did present an opportunity to drive even greater efficiency, reviewing all those services that had built up incrementally over previous years and which were now duplicating and replicating. I can recall, for example, one area where there were more than 20 24-hour voluntary sector helplines, all grant-aided, and all underused. The financial position prompted a review, with a smaller number of helplines better advertised, more used, and with improved performance. But driving greater efficiency and value for money will be nowhere near enough to balance the shrinking budget books. The cuts will be real and will hurt.