Fast-tracked cuts to frontline services will create chaos
Ravi Chandiramani
Monday, January 24, 2011
It is now official: councils are being forced to cut fast and cut deep into frontline services for families, children and young people.
Our survey among directors of children's services (DCSs) lays bare how spending reductions are being frontloaded in the coming financial year 2011/12 - with cuts across England averaging 13 per cent and the worst-hit authorities preparing to slash a whopping 25 per cent from their children's budget. This compares with council cash reductions in general of 28 per cent spread over the next four years.
Our study also reveals a sad irony, coming just days after the publication of MP Graham Allen's early intervention report to the government: the services at most risk are those that intervene early to prevent costlier problems mounting in later life. Children's centres, as well as youth centres and Connexions services are cited by the DCSs as among the most vulnerable. The survey, completed by 25 children's services chiefs across the country, provides the firmest indication yet of the reality of the spending reductions on the ground. It would suggest that tens of thousands of jobs in children's services departments nationwide are at risk.
The tragedy of frontloading the cuts is that councils have so little time to reform the way they work to best effect. Moreover, redundancies will force real expertise out of the sector, which will be difficult to rebuild in years to come. As the MP Lisa Nandy explains in this issue, voluntary redundancies for many council chiefs are not an option.
If ever there was a time to get creative in how services are delivered, it is now.
Financial capability guides
This issue includes the first in the series of five good practice pull-out guides from the Consumer Financial Education Body. The guides will show youth sector professionals how to help young people manage their money and avoid falling into the debt trap. The first here covers the theme of foster care. Future guides will cover youth work; information, advice and guidance; youth offending; and housing support and homelessness. They will be essential reading in these difficult financial times.
Ravi Chandiramani, editor, Children & Young People Now
