LGA fears children's centre closures if cuts continue

A report by the organisation calculates that the average council has already faced a 27 per cent cut in central government funding over the current spending review period covering 2011/12 to 2014/15.

It warns that a further 10 per cent cut when the 2015/16 spending round is announced next month would mean the average council having to find savings of £30m for that financial year.

“In order to achieve that cut it would have to reduce spending on a broad combination of non-statutory services which might include children's centres,” the report states.

The report goes on to predict that due to a combination of cuts and increased demand, councils will only be able to provide statutory services by 2019/20 “unless there is a major reform of local government finance”.

The LGA has called on government to take a number of steps to help councils – including removing ringfences from health and schools budgets – so money can be more effectively spent on early intervention services for children and their families.

Sir Merrick Cockell, chair of the LGA, said: "Local government has so far borne the brunt of cuts to public spending.

“If the government pursues the same policy again, local services will suffer to the point where many councils start failing their communities.

"Ultimately the only way of maintaining public services in the face of proposed long-term cuts is a radical redesign of the way public services are provided and paid for.

“This has to be based on the idea of allowing local areas to design services around the needs of people and communities.

“Our research shows that the community budgets approach would save billions of pounds a year while improving the quality of services, but this potential will only be met if the whole public sector embraces the idea."