Children's centres bear brunt of Newcastle service cuts
Joe Lepper
Friday, March 6, 2015
Newcastle City Council has approved £3.2m worth of cuts to Sure Start and family services.
The move was approved – along with £2.1m of other cuts to children and young people's services – at a meeting of the full council this week as part of £40m worth of cuts across the council.
This will see the city’s network of children’s centres overhauled with the loss of 28 family support posts and support instead focused at Community Family Hubs based in the city’s most deprived areas.
Joanne Kingsland, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “Support for children which gives them the best possible start to life is proven to make a real difference to improving their long-term life chances. We would dearly love these types of service to be available to everyone across the city – but reductions in funding mean we must prioritise our resources in the areas they can make the greatest difference.
“By sustaining a strong core service supporting those in greatest need in the face of unprecedented spending cuts we believe that we are creating strong foundations from which we can rebuild when the council’s finances improve.”
Services and support for looked-after children and young offenders will also be cut.
The looked-after children’s services budget will also be slashed, by £1.1m, which is seven per cent of its current £16m budget. The council hopes to make savings by focusing on adoption and other permanent alternatives to care, a greater use of in-house foster care and reviewing contracting arrangements with the independent care sector.
Children’s social worker roles will also be cut as the council looks to make a further £791,000 worth of savings. According to reports presented to the council, 12 full-time equivalent social work posts are expected to go.
In addition, the youth offending team budget will be cut by 10 per cent (£224,000) through axing a currently vacant post and ending its non-statutory contracts.
Last month, Labour announced plans to utilise mothballed children's centres to create 50,000 additional childcare places if it wins May's general election.
