Issue - meetings

To determine the future model for Early Years and Children’s Centres to be delivered within the reduced budget available, following Council budget decisions in February 2014.  To consider whether to support a ‘Right to Provide’ request from Children's Centre staff who would like to explore establishing a ‘staff mutual’ to deliver a range of services.

Vicky Drew in a statement [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 15 and on the Council’s website] referred to the fact that Children’s Centres were being shut all over the country and appealed to Cabinet to avoid closing any in the area.

Councillor Liz Hardman in an ad hoc statement reminded Cabinet of the huge consultation process which had taken place earlier in the year and asked what part the feedback had played in the thinking leading up to the current proposals.  She observed that 70% of the respondents had been parents.  She encouraged Cabinet to give an opportunity for the proposed staff co-operative to be put in place.

Councillor John Bull in an ad hoc statement said that Children’s Centres were still faced with cuts of £1M.  The business case for a staff mutual would take 18 months to prepare and he asked Cabinet to allow time for this to happen.  He suggested that funds could be used from the Council’s reserves to suspend any plans until the end of the financial year, so as not to make any changes which would be impossible to reinstate at a later date.

Councillor Michael Evans in an ad hoc statement emphasised that it was not possible to use funds which should be available to future generations.  He pointed out that it had never been intended that the Sure Start initiative would provide universal access to services.  He recognised the ability of a staff mutual to access certain external funding which the Council as a public body was prevented from accessing.  He gave credit to the Cabinet that it had been able to avoid closing any Children’s Centres.

Councillor Eleanor Jackson in an ad hoc statement acknowledged the diminishing funds available, but emphasised that people wished to see Children’s Centres protected.  She strongly supported the proposals put forward by the Early Years, Children and Youth PDS Panel and the proposal from Councillor Bull that Cabinet should suspend any changes during the current financial year.

Councillor Dine Romero introduced the item.  With reference to the possible staff mutual, she would need to know that any business case would be viable.  It could possibly be in place by summer 2016 but would need time to mature before being floated off from the Council.  She thanked those who had contributed to the debate, including those who had responded to the consultation and particularly to the staff of the Children’s Centres.  She felt that there were two conflicting pressures: reducing resources and meeting the needs of children.  She proposed to meet both.  She emphasised that no Children’s Centres had been or would be closed.  She recognised the importance of outreach work and, as a result, the number of Health Visitors was being expanded.  She was confident that the needs of families would continue to be met.

Councillor Romero said she wanted to explore further the possibility of a staff mutual and that some additional transitional funding would be required while this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71

The Early Years, Children and Youth PDS Panel was asked by Cabinet to consider proposals relating to the restructuring of the Early Years Service.  The Panel at its meeting in January 2014 made recommendations which the Cabinet is now asked to consider along with other responses made during the consultation period.

Councillor Hardman in an ad hoc statement added more detail to the recommendations of the Resources PDS Panel. She welcomed the £500k that the administration had agreed to put back into Children’s Services. She said that the successful campaign by parents and the public for the restoration of funding to Children’s Centres had shown how valued they were. However, she understood that only £300k of the £500k would be going to Children’s Centres, with the rest being earmarked for other areas of Early Years services. This would mean that Children’s Centres would still suffer a significant cut in funding. She understood that to keep all Children’s Centres open on a daily basis would require an additional £294,000. She therefore requested the Cabinet to agree to put back a further £300,000 into the Early Years budget on an ongoing basis with the specific purpose of keeping all Children’s Centres open each day.

Councillor Evans in an ad hoc statement said that he thought that there had been no cuts to the Children’s Services budget this year; he hoped that this would be clarified. He welcomed the permanent reinstatement of the £500k. He also welcomed the detail given in the report, which gave a clear picture of precisely what services were being affected. He welcomed the fact that all Children’s Centres would stay open. He said it seemed to be assumed that the voluntary sector would take care of all the universal services; the problem with this was that the universal services were a good route for identifying those who needed the targetted service. He therefore urged the administration to ensure that there were other means of identfying clients needing the targetted services.

Councillor Romero in proposing the item, stressed this was a report on a work in progress, and not on the end product. She said that the recommendations from the Resources PDS and the points made by Councillor Hardman would be considered before the Council’s budget meeting next Tuesday. In her view there was merit in exploring the proposed new model further, as the report suggested that it would bring significant savings without impacting on the front delivery of targetted services. Partly this was because the situation had changed since the Children’s Centres were first set up. Funding was now coming into Early Years from a variety of sources, and health visitors were acting as a referral point for further services. The Cabinet would consider the issue again in the summer of 2014.

Councillor Crossley seconded the item. He too emphasised that it was a work in progress. He thought it was important to note that there were no proposals to close Children’s Centres as other councils had done.

On a motion from Councillor Romero, seconded by Councillor Crossley it was

RESOLVED unanimously:

(1)  to include within its budget proposals to Council, the proposed adjustment which permanently deletes the £500,000 savings originally required from the Early Years and Children’s Centres base budget in 2014/15 and subsequent years;

(2)  to note  ...  view the full minutes text for item 112

This urgent item has been added with the Chair’s agreement and at the request of the EYCY PDS Panel following the Panel’s consideration of the Call-in of the original Cabinet decision.  The documents for Cabinet’s consideration will be tabled at the meeting.

Councillor Liz Hardman in a statement said that the proposed cuts were too deep.  She felt that Cabinet had failed to respond adequately to the recommendations of the Panel or of the Minority Report.  She had asked for a cost benefit analysis but this had not been provided.  She repeated her request that an assurance be given that no cuts would take place before April 2015.  She reminded Cabinet that volunteers did a great job but were not obliged to turn up.  Rather than allocating money for cycle paths, she would have preferred to use it on keeping Children’s Centres running effectively.

Councillor Eleanor Jackson in a statement said that Cabinet would be held to account for cuts in Children’s Centres.  She asked Cabinet to reconsider its plans because she felt that what was required was a 2-year plan for delivering essential services.

Councillor Dine Romero said that she had already responded directly to all of the Panel’s recommendations.  Here formal response had been attached as Appendix 2 to the report and she would be asking Cabinet to approve those responses.  She had explained to the Panel that not all of the questions can be answered until a model for the future service is confirmed.  The Panel also asked for a timetable, which she said has now been provided (Appx 3 of the report).  The model would be in place by March 2015.  She had not, however, given any assurances that no cuts would be found to be necessary before then.

She moved the proposals.

Councillor Simon Allen seconded the proposal.  He confirmed that the whole Cabinet had discussed the issue in depth.  He would rather have been able to avoid the current situation but the council was faced with very tough challenges and he reminded those who had Called-in the previous decision that they had offered no alternatives.  He supported the approach offered by Councillor Romero and seconded the proposals because it was essential that services should be targeted towards the most vulnerable.  He emphasised that no Children’s Centre would be closed.

Councillor Ben Stevens supported the proposals.  He responded to Councillor Hardman by observing that transferring the one-off capital funding for cycle paths to pay for the recurring revenue costs of Children’s Centres was not allowed and not feasible.

Councillor Katie Hall observed that savings had to be found across the Council.  She stressed the importance of Early Years intervention but said that a model must be found which would deliver the service within the available budget.

Councillor David Bellotti regretted any reduction to services for children and young people.  The current circumstances offered an opportunity to reconsider how services were delivered.  Given that central Government had put more funds into health visors, this would be a good time to refocus the service.  He emphasised however that there was no intention to replace all paid staff by volunteers.

Councillor Bellotti thanked Councillor Sally Davis and the PDS Panel for their hard work.  He observed that all of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100

Cabinet will consider the recommendations of the EYCY Task & Finish Group following their review of Early Years, Children's Centre and Early Help Services.

Councillor John Bull in a statement [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 5 and on the Council’s website] asked for a reversal of the plans.  He felt that the PDS Panel’s response to the issue was not sufficient.  The aim of Children’s Centres should be to reach all young children and their parents; moving to targeted services for only vulnerable families would undo the progress made since Sure Start.  He asked that the Panel should be asked to reconvene and come up with proposals for a sustainable level of service.

Councillor Bull presented a petition of 880 signatures to Cabinet.

The Chair referred the petition to Councillor Dine Romero for her response in due course.

Councillor Liz Hardman in a statement [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 12 and on the Council’s website] introduced her minority report and reminded Cabinet that the Panel had admitted that there were a number of unanswered questions.  She felt that the Panel should be asked to report back to Cabinet in December with new proposals.

Roz Lambert (Chief Exec, First Steps Bath) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 6 and on the Council’s website] said that if Children’s Centres were obliged to be self-funding, they would depend only on government Early Years funding and fees from parents.  The kind of holistic intervention presently possible would be lost.

Sue Pendle (Chair of Trustees, First Steps Bath) in a statement read by Dougie Brown [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 7 and on the Council’s website] said that the 38% cut was out of balance with the rest of the Council’s budget reductions.  It was also out of line with the Council’s stated priorities.  Provision should be based on need, not on financial savings alone.

Nettie Williams (parent, Radstock) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 8 and on the Council’s website] spoke of her personal passion to see Children’s Centres thriving and helping young families especially at critical times in their lives.

Jane Carter (Branch Secretary, UNISON) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 9 and on the Council’s website] spoke of the importance of the work undertaken by Children’s Centres and of the concern of her members about the impact of the proposed cuts.  She urged the Cabinet to note the issues raised and to consider the recommendations of the minority report.

Councillor Eleanor Jackson in a statement [a copy of which is attached to these Minutes as Appendix 10 and on the Council’s website] expressed her concern that the PDS Panel had been asked to consider where the cuts should be made, but had not been asked to consider the depth of the cuts.  Not enough account had been taken of the equality impact assessment.  If the cuts were made as recommended, the service remaining would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77