Targets for cuts in children’s services include children’s centres, support for young job hunters and services monitoring truancy.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s Green cabinet is proposing £2.8 million of cuts in 2012/13 to a budget of £62.7 million.
The council will also launch a review into the future of the city’s 20 children’s centres and is suggesting changes to the Youth Employability Service that would mean no drop-in centres for young job seekers in the west or centre of the city.
Other services earmarked for cuts include home-to-school transport, services for children with disabilities and the Youth Offending Service.
Education Welfare Service
Among the most controversial targets is the Educational Welfare Service, which monitors school attendance and supports schools in dealing with the issue.
The service is facing an 85% cut in its £254,000 annual budget with the council admitting “there will not be capacity to monitor children’s attendance on a city wide basis, support schools with this work or work with families where attendance is an issue”.
Conservative group spokesman for children’s services, Andrew Wealls, said: “The idea of this service is to nip problems in the bud before they can develop.
"If a child is missing school from the age of nine or ten then they are going to face serious issues in the future and there is likely to be more pressure on the youth offending services and other public services. Cutting this makes absolutely no sense at all.”
Councillor Jason Kitcat, cabinet member for finance, said the move followed Government guidelines that schools lead on monitoring attendance themselves.
He said: “We will retain our central data collection function and will be able to intervene should there be extreme cases requiring court action.”
Council jobs
Coun Wealls said there was a fundamental flaw at the heart of the budget planning process.
He said: “Everyone understands savings have to be made somewhere but I do have an issue with the way the Greens have gone about this.
“The element that runs through their budget proposals is they have tried to protect council jobs rather than the service.
"I have asked the question as to whether the council has had discussions with the voluntary sector over whether they can take on some of the responsibility for children’s centres and other youth services.”
Coun Kitcat: “We focused on protecting services and those who deliver them.
“I disagree with Tory ideals of returning to a Victorian era when services depended on charity and philanthropy to survive.”
Other areas facing cuts include nurseries, where cuts are proposed to agency staff with apprentices used instead.
The budget proposals warn “any reduction in qualified staff could lead to reduced quality of provision and the capacity to deliver Family Learning.”
Coun Kitcat confirmed apprentices would not start with a qualification but would work towards a qualification under the supervision of nursery staff. He said each nursery would have a maximum of two to three apprentices for every 20 to 30 staff.
Balance the Books
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