Manchester City Council plans to cut 26 per cent of its children's services budget by stopping universal access to children's centres and scrapping qualified teaching posts within the settings.
Under the proposals, seen by Nursery World, the council would bring in PVI providers to run its children's centres and offer targeted services to 'the most vulnerable' families.
The local authority also plans to reduce back office support in finance, human resources and IT and cut any uncommitted children's centre funding. The proposals would see children and youth services cut by £14m in 2011/2012 and a further £11m in 2012/2013.
The council currently charges, on average, £126 per week for daycare at its maintained settings, which it says is well below the market rate of £147 to £160 and below the real cost for each place which it says is £250 per week. It plans to increase fees from April and seek to commission providers from the PVI sector to take over its childcare provision.
The local authority plans to increase its budget for looked after children by more than £6m and employ more social workers. Around 926 posts across children's services will be lost due to the cuts, although some could be transferred to the PVI sector.
Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, said, 'Putting this budget together has involved the most difficult, and in many ways most unpalatable, process I have been involved in since I was first elected. I cannot and will not pretend that the financial position in which we have been placed is anything other than bad news.'
He added, 'Manchester is the country's fourth most deprived local authority area but is among the top five hardest hit. We are doing everything we can to protect and maintain the services which people need and make sure funding is targeted where it will make the most positive difference.'
The final budget will be decided at a full council meeting on 9 March.
