Free garden waste service axed as city digs in for ‘painful’ £102m cuts plan
More children’s homes are expected to close and the budget for children’s centres will be reduced by £1 million, although centres in the most socially deprived areas will be protected.
It is clear that some of the CYPF savings involve children’s social workers taking on additional duties, even though performance targets for assessing vulnerable youngsters are not being met at the moment. Cabinet member Brigid Jones admitted she faced a “very hard task” in safeguarding those most in need of social care, but she was “very confident” that targets would be met.
Other budget savings include:
- Youth Offending Service, £400,000 cut.
- Child and adolescent mental health services, loss of £1.4 million grant.
- Connexions and youth service, £750,000 cut.
- Hospital social work team scrapped, saving £488,000.
- Early Years Support Service, £1.3 million cut.
- Redesign of the Youth Service to save £470,000.
Sir Albert hit out at Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, who he accused of “misleading” the public by pretending that councils could avoid spending cuts by becoming more efficient.
He added: “My first duty is to be open and honest with the people of Birmingham about the difficult and painful decisions we must take. There is no magic wand available and it would be a cruel deception to pretend otherwise.”
He firmly rejected calls by hard-left groups that the council should ignore the Government and set an illegal budget. “We are not prepared to defy the law and set a deficit budget as some have urged us to do.”
The scene is set, therefore, for a tense council budget fixing meeting later this month. Security is being stepped up at the Council House over fears that protesters may try to prevent councillors from approving the 2013-14 budget.
However, this year’s budget difficulties may turn out to be relatively minor in February 2014, when Sir Albert has said he will be forced to come forward with proposals to decommission a range of public services. “This does mean that local government is going to be very different,” Sir Albert added.
