Children's Centres have faced the brunt of council cuts, finds report

The report published by the Family and Parenting Institute sheds new light on the challenges councils face sustaining services for families and children in need.

Drawing on interviews and an analysis of revenue spending, Families on the Front Line? examines children’s services budgets in eight different local authorities in England over two financial years (2011–12 and 2012 -13). All were guaranteed anonymity.

The report reveals that on average the eight councils researchers spoke to saw a 9.8 per cent cut to their 2011-12 children’s services budget.

While a group of eight local authorities is not representative of all councils, researchers say they sourced a balanced sample of councils across a set of key variables (including political control, extent of reduction in revenue spending power, levels of relative deprivation and English region).

Services which councils provide to schools have seen the sharpest reduction in spending over the last two years, with some funding having been transferred from local authorities to academies.

According to the report, spending on non-social work services including early years provision in children’s centres, has also shouldered a large share of spending reductions. However, special educational needs accounted for the smallest proportion of savings.

Of the eight councils, the majority faced a reduction to their children’s centres' budget, ranging from a ten per cent to 35 per cent cut. In order to make savings councils reduced the number of children’s centre staff, adopted ‘hub and spoke’ models of delivery and allowed early years operational managers to make their own reductions as they saw fit.

Just one council said it had to close a children’s centre which was underused and inefficient.

Other examples of savings made by councils to early years services included reducing the amount of money spent on training for the PVI sector and increasing nursery fees.

While councils reported having made savings in spending on social work and looked-after children’s services, they said any money saved was cancelled out by growth in spending in the same category. The report’s authors suggest this could indicate that the needs of families are escalating.

Council officers predicted that any further savings will be far more difficult to find and are likely to hit front line services even harder.

One council officer said, ‘We designed our new operating model based on a two-year recession, not a five- or seven-year stagnation. Who knows what the future might be like?’

Katherine Rake, chief executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, said, ‘It’s clear that councils have been working hard to deliver savings and keep up with demand locally, but we’re concerned for the future as the options for local authorities to make efficiency savings are narrowing and cuts will have to come from frontline services.

‘With less money available for universal services, local authorities are inevitably focusing resources on those with highest need. This could leave us with fewer opportunities to intervene early in families, proving to be a false economy and increasing pressure on more costly services in the years to come. The fear is that many of those families who are coping at the moment will tip over into crisis in the future.’