Children face the “lifetime cost” of the municipal crisis

The welfare of children and young people is under threat from cuts to local services, the Children’s Commissioner has warned.

BBC analysis shows local authorities made £3bn in savings this financial year, but still face a funding gap of more than £5.7bn by 2026 – 2027.

Local government experts said councils made “all the easy cuts” years ago and were now struggling to protect vital social services for children and adults.

Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said: “Children should not pay the price of balancing the budget. »

Local Government Minister Jim McMahon said the new government had inherited a crisis and there was “no fear” of its scale.

The BBC’s Shared Data Unit surveyed 187 higher-level authorities across the UK, which provide services ranging from adult social care to bin collection and pothole repairs.

As well as having a growing black hole in their finances, councils have been forced to dip into their reserves this year, drawing down more than £1 billion in a bid to balance their books.

And 19 of them have requested financial support from the government – ​​an “unprecedented” number, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

Main findings

Our investigation revealed:

• Cuts to social workers and safeguarding teams, as well as reductions in spending on teams supporting young people at risk of sexual exploitation.

• A significant number of revisions and reductions regarding the transport of children and adults with disabilities

• Reduced spending on legal services, including advice on children’s welfare cases

• Cuts to many youth projects, reductions in playground maintenance and breaks in the recruitment of apprentices

• Widespread cuts in education spending, affecting teaching staff and classroom budgets as well as music lessons

• Removing period poverty programs

Dame Rachel said many of the savings proposals “would have a disproportionate impact on children who rely on the state for their protection and a stable home environment”.

Echoing his comments, chief executive of children’s charity Barnardo’s Lynn Perry said services under threat – such as family centers and youth projects – played a vital role in ensuring problems were addressed before so that they cannot get worse.

She said: “While cutting children’s services may seem like a way to balance budgets, it ultimately has a lifetime cost for an entire generation of children. »

Peter Evans, from Carmarthenshire, has been a headteacher for 22 years and said the situation facing schools was “the worst it has ever been”.

He said cuts and changes to non-statutory early intervention services were having a significant impact, with his school having to spend more on nappies, wipes and changing tables.

“We are in a perfect storm with our money dwindling and our needs increasing, with more and more children arriving in centers non-verbal and untrained in potty training and access to services like speech therapy, school psychologists and occupational therapy is under threat,” Mr Evans said. .

“Councils are in a difficult position, but children have a chance and they are the future.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said the BBC’s findings “highlight the harsh reality many schools and families face” due to cuts in funded education budgets by the municipal council.

He warned that the situation could ultimately compromise the education system’s ability to support children.

“Limit lives”

Campaigners say the local government budget crisis is also limiting the lives of millions of disabled people.

Mikey Erhardt, of Disability Rights UK, said many people were finding themselves plunged into “hardship, isolation, distress and increasing poverty”.

He said the situation also affected the life chances of children with disabilities, who had to constantly fight for support.

“The underfunding of social services in particular goes far beyond the numbers on a Whitehall spreadsheet – it goes to the very heart of how we value the lives of disabled citizens,” he said .

“Millions of us, young and old, find themselves deprived of the care and support we need.”

He added that when care and support was provided, it was often just the essentials rather than the support needed to live fully and engage with others.

Former teaching assistant Vickki Byrne has seen the impact of classroom budget cuts and reductions in council services firsthand as a professional and parent.

“I have seen children on education and healthcare plans, who are supposed to receive one-on-one support, have their teaching assistant taken away to help with the rest of the class,” she said.

“These kids want to work and succeed, but they live in an environment that doesn’t support them.”

Ms Byrne said she had seen pupils in their final years of secondary school who could “barely read and write” and who had had to “fight tooth and nail” to get financial aid for their own child.

She said her daughter, who was struggling to get by at her mainstream school, had suffered from significant delays in receiving support from social workers and other local authority services.

“There is no safety net now and it’s a nightmare,” she said. “I had to give up my job and care for my daughter full time and even had to call emergency services on my own because I became suicidal after not being able to get help for She.”

“Scrabbler”

The BBC analysis also revealed examples of councils approving the removal of flagpoles, scrapping long-service awards for staff, scrapping coastal lifeguards, ending asbestos collection from households and introducing dynamic pricing of theaters so that tickets cost more as demand increases.

Dr Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), said it proved local authorities were “digging in” and putting forward “almost comical” proposals in a desperate attempt to save local authorities. vital services.

LGA president Louise Gittins warned the risk of financial failure in local government was “becoming systemic”.

She joined the LGiU in calling on the new Labor government to provide councils with financial stability and funding reform, including the introduction of multi-year funding agreements.

Councils are funded by a combination of council tax, business rates, income from services such as parking and social housing rent, as well as government money known as an income support grant .

This funding fell by almost a third between 2010 and 2021, according to the Public Accounts Committee, which found that the council’s income was £8.4 billion lower in real terms than in the previous decade.

McMahon said these “deep-rooted” problems could not be resolved overnight, adding that the government was determined to “reform and rebuild” the sector.

The minister said: “We will work hand in hand with councils in moving towards multi-year funding agreements to ensure long-term stability, end tender processes and ensure the sector gets back on its feet .”

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