Agenda item

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 and accept the emerging models and proposals for each of the five service areas;

(3)  to instruct officers to formally consult on the proposals for these services; and

(4)  to instruct officers to bring back to Cabinet fully developed models and proposals for the future delivery of each service.