Fears £1.2m cut will hit young people (From Swindon Advertiser)

Fears £1.2m cut will hit young people

8:10am Thursday 8th July 2010 in News By Emma Streatfield

Clive Zimmerman, headteacher of Greendown School

DIFFICULT decisions lie ahead after the Government slashed £1.2 million off this year’s budget for Swindon’s young people, according to one councillor.

Swindon councillor David Renard, cabinet member for children’s services, confirmed that the council will have to find a way of saving the sum during the next nine months while still protecting vulnerable members of the community.

The Government says the cuts are necessary to cut the national deficit and it is for the council to decide how they find the savings.

Coun Renard said: “It’s fair to say that the least vulnerable of these services, where we don’t feel there is a need or priority, will be where the reductions in funding will take place. It’s a case of watch this space.”

Children’s services includes schools, social services, mental health and learning difficulties.

The dedicated schools’ grant – which funds day to day running of schools and staff pay – and the revenue support grant remain unaffected.

The dozen or so grants, which were ring-fenced under the Labour government restricting where they were spent, include support for Neets – those not in employment, education or training – and the Connexions service. This works with young people aged 13 to 19 on personal issues, school, money, health or learning. The savings, which amount to around a 25 per cent cut, must be made before the end of the financial year in April 2011.

However, Coun Renard stressed that no decisions had been made about where the cuts would be made and some services could be unaffected. He said the real impact would be clearer after a private council meeting to discuss the details.

Swindon Council is still considering whether the cuts should be shouldered by children’s services or spread across other departments.

Coun Renard said: “We have got £1.2m less than we thought we were going to get therefore we have got to make some difficult decisions.

“The fact that is particularly difficult is three months have already passed.”

Greendown School headteacher Clive Zimmerman, the chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Headteachers, said cuts to children’s services would add to the increased pressure on schools.

He said: “We all know and understand how the economic crisis has led to the need for significant cuts in public spending but when you start off from a low base – and Swindon was one of the lowest funded local education authorities from long before the banking crisis – then there is nothing further that can be cut that doesn’t have a direct impact on standards.

“Cuts to central children services funding will mean rapid change in the way that many sensitive areas of work – such as special needs – operate.”

Coun Derique Montaut, Labour’s leader in Swindon, said: “Cuts to services like Connexions, the Future Jobs Fund and other services that aim to support and encourage our town’s vulnerable youth into employment, will have huge knock-on effects for our town.

“Swindon already has an above-average number of Neets compared to the rest of the country – these cuts only look to inflame an already bad situation.”

Action is essential

A SWINDON MP defended the Government’s decision to cut funding for children’s services.

Conservative MP for North Swindon Justin Tomlinson, pointed out that as the grants were no longer ring fenced the £1.2m savings could be found from other areas of the council budget.

He said: “The reality is Labour wrecked the economy, we’re paying more in deficit interest than we spend on the education and defence budget.

“If we don’t tackle the public deficit we will see interest rates rocket which will cripple the fragile economy and hit Swindon residents hard.

“In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to, but we are where we are and whilst we’re asking councils to make a contribution the compensation is that councils will be freed from the meddling Labour control targets and inspections which racked up costs for the hard pressed tax payer.”