Last year, Salford Council hit Children's Services with cuts of over £1million, which included closing Children's Sure Start Centre buildings down and slashing the budget for funding childcare for very young vulnerable children from £107,000 to £70,000. Now the Council is coming back to slash the latter funding again by another £50,000 making a mere £20,000 available for a service that's already hit bursting point.
Before this cut has even been implemented, childcare workers are stating that some of the most vulnerable children in Salford have been turned away since the `savings' were first introduced for Funded Day Care
"We declined funding for 48 children in 2013-2014 and 32 children in 2014-2015" states a trade union counter proposal to the Council's plans, seen by the Salford Star.
"All of these children were referred by professional's such as Health Visitors, Social Workers and Early Help Services who took the time to refer (some on lengthy Common Assessment Framework forms) and felt that the children would benefit from attending some day care" it adds "Unfortunately the restraints of the reduced £70,000 budget meant that we could not help these children.
"42% of the children we have funded in the last two years have been at thresholds 3 and 4 (Children In Need, Children Subject to Child Protection Plans or Looked After)" it explains "£20,000 would therefore not even meet the need for the children who are receiving high level specialist services."
The Council argues in a staff consultation report, which runs until 30th April, that increases in funding for two year olds by the Government "could lessen the need to have the same level of funding and the need for a dedicated post responsible for this funding budget". The response from workers argues that it is "not the case"...
"62% of the children who have received Funded Day Care over the last two years have been 0-2 years old" it states "The number of children ages 2 and over have decreased as a result of the 2 year old funding to 16%, however we have still spent this year's £70,000 supporting Salford's most vulnerable children, most of which have been babies and toddlers."
Meanwhile, John Merry, Assistant Mayor for Children and Young People - stressing that it was purdah and he wasn't representing the official Council view - told the Salford Star that he was "quite happy" with the changes...
"We think we can substitute money so it won't make any difference" he said "In terms of two year olds we think we've covered this with the extra grants we received from the Government. We think that's not a problem...we're quite happy we've got that covered.
"We're also quite happy that for those children under the age of two we can allow appropriate childcare to be given to them but we want to look at a wider support package which will include Children's Centres and targeted outreach support" he added "We're confident that for the parents concerned there will not be an impact."
Could he guarantee that there wouldn't be an impact on babies and toddlers? "I can't guarantee that there'll be no changes but I'd say there will be no impact in terms of damage done as a result of these decisions, because we might decide for example that it's more appropriate to ensure that they are looked after in Children's Centres so all of these things will be passed to individual social workers to decide the best possible package and care for them."
However, Children's Centres, hammered by last year's cuts, are already overstretched in terms of staffing, and, as part of this latest round of £151,231cuts will lose 3.5 more staff posts – the Children's Centre Service Manager, the Funded Daycare and Resource Coordinator, and 1.5 Children's Centre Worker posts which are currently vacant.
"My approach has been to ensure that Sure Start centres can remain open and continue to provide a much needed service" John Merry explained "We have therefore not filled some vacancies in order to make the required savings and re-organised the payments made for child care on behalf of vulnerable families. These changes will mean that damage for the service will be minimised. In other words, the money to make payments for child care will come from other sources rather than the formal budgets."
"Obviously we're trying to do the best we can with the resources we have available" he added "I'm trying to minimise that impact in particular to vulnerable children by making sure we can still offer the required childcare if and when it's needed. But we're asking social workers to look at the wider package..."
However the counter proposal by workers concludes that cuts childcare for babies, toddlers and youngsters at risk will have profound impacts...
"How would they have been affected if they hadn't spent some time in a safe/ stimulating environment whilst their parents/carers were able to attend appointments such as mental health, drugs, alcohol, domestic abuse support and parenting courses?" it asks.
• The counter proposal to the Council's plan also cites a number of case studies, including the funding of two children, one aged three months and one aged two, whose single parent mother needed to have a serious operation on her head and spine with a six month recovery period.
"Extended family support was limited as they worked during the day. It was, understandably not deemed appropriate for the 16 year old sibling to care for the younger two children during the day time, which had been the family's original plan.
Funding was granted for Child 1 to attend nursery full time for a two month period which included the week of the operation and the first crucial few weeks of recovery. This was then reviewed and panel agreed to fund 15 hours per week during the rest of mother's recovery period. Panel agreed to top up Child 2's 2 year old funding to full time for a two month period.
A Family Support Worker was also allocated to offer general support during this period, however if funded day care had not been in place the two younger siblings could have become temporarily looked after at a much greater cost."
* Photo shows protest outside Lower Broughton Children's Centre last year - read about the Centre's Survival Story - click here
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