Birmingham councillors approve £100m cuts to children and families services

At a meeting of Birmingham City Council’s cabinet last night (5 March), councillors approved plans which will see children and families services funding slashed by more than £52 million in 2024/25 and more than £63 million in 2025/26.

This includes more than £14 million being handed back to the council’s central reserves by Birmingham Children’s Trust as well as a reduction of funding for home to school transport for vulnerable children and funding for youth services being cut by £2.6 million.

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Services for children at risk of exploitation in city will see funding cut by more than £2 million while early help services will face a funding reduction of £8.4 million.

The council has approved plans to cut four members of staff from its children and families team – as part of 600 job losses across the local authority – and remove 32 children and families positions which are currently vacant from its staffing structure.

Elsewhere, a review of provision offered to young people as “they transition from children's to adult services” will contribute to a saving of more than £15 million in the adult social care budget.

The Labour-run council also approved a 10% council tax increase for the upcoming financial year, after being granted special permission from the government to increase the rate above the national cap on account of the council declaring itself effectively bankrupt in September.

The local authority, which is the largest in Europe, is facing an immediate budget shortfall of £87m which led to leaders issuing the section 114 notice.

53 councillors voted for and 32 against the proposals in the vote which came hours before Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will announce his latest budget in which he is expected to ask councils to reduce spending on diversity schemes and consultants.

Council leader John Cotton apologised "unreservedly" to people living in the city during the meeting, describing the cuts as “devastating”.

Last week, Nottingham City Council also approved cuts in a bid to save £53 million including a saving of just over £4 million in children’s services spending and the closure of Colwick Park Activity Centre.

It will also end school uniform support for eligible families if the Household Support Fund grant does not continue, councillors said.

Councillor Audra Wynter, the council’s deputy leader and portfolio holder for finance, said “local government in this country is facing an unprecedent financial crisis”.

She added: “Our focus will be on continuing to provide important statutory services but other discretionary services that we know local people value will be significantly affected by the savings. We will do our best as a council to mitigate the impact as much as we can.”

James Thomas, Birmingham Childrens’ Trust chief executive, said: “The impact of the city council’s cuts on the Birmingham Children’s Trust core contract will be managed in a way to minimise the impact upon front line service delivery to children, young people and families. The Trust needs to find total savings of £16.3m, which is 8% of the Trust’s annual revenue. We have worked hard to minimise the impact of these cuts on statutory services but inevitably there will be some service reductions. Through a range of measures including, for example, better use of grants, greater partnership contributions, and more effective cost control and commissioning measures for high-cost placements, we have been able to reduce the impact on front line delivery to £2.1m, which is 1%. Therefore, there will no reduction in all of the core statutory services that the Trust delivers.”

“Whilst the council is ending its specific funding for Early Help services, Birmingham Children’s Trust has agreed with the council to step in and maintain as much of the funding of Early Help as possible, which the Trust is able to do by making other matching savings.

The Children’s Trust will be able to sustain all of its targeted family support teams that are working across the ten districts in Birmingham, along with continued support to the Birmingham Voluntary and Community Sector, who provide a highly valued link to community resources, although not at the same level as the current council funding.”

Last week, a report by the Local Government Association found that two-thirds of councils say spending on children’s services and support for children with special educational needs and disabilities are biggest short-term pressures facing local authorities.

Meanwhile, latest figures from YMCA England and Wales find that council spending on youth services last year was 73 per cent less than levels seen in 2010/11.