Nicola Smith
Local cuts continue to reduce local services for children and young people, illustrating the significant impacts that even very small funding reductions can have for families and communities. For example, in Torquay the council has reportedly saved £6,000 by cutting funds for Friday night leisure centre youth sessions.
Richard Exell
Contact a Family, the charity for families with disabled children, has raised concerns that the 2011 changes to Housing Benefit will hit disabled children especially hard.
Richard Exell
A survey by Every Disabled Child Matters reveals that local authorities are already cutting services for disabled children and their parents including short breaks, play and leisure, education, transport, health, training and equipment. Close to Crisis: Frontline service cuts for disabled children is based on a survey of EDCM’s members over the summer, and it found that voluntary groups working with disabled children and their families are afraid that cuts next year will damage the services they rely on and some local authorities are already making cuts assuming that central government funding will no longer be available from next April.
Anjum Klair
We have previously reported on how cuts are impacting on children and young people, particularly as local councils respond to cuts in funding. Further information from other councils is now coming forward.
Nicola Smith
Free fruit for children in Glasgow’s primary schools is reportedly at risk of being cut.
Nicola Smith
Evidence is growing on the impacts of local area grant cuts for local services. For example, in Westminster two early years centres are facing cuts of around £90,000 each and in Birmingham 36 frontline workers from the children’s services department are facing redundancy.
Nicola Smith
Today the National Housing Federation has published research on the impacts that a 40 per cent cut to the Supporting People programme could have. The programme aims to “provide housing related support to vulnerable people to enable them to live more independently”.
Nicola Smith
The Department for Communities has published a list of new cuts on its website. The list was uploaded to their site yesterday but does not yet appear to have been press released. Cuts include: the Inspiring Communities pilot, which provided grant funding to neighbourhood partnerships seeking to raise the aspirations and educational attainment of local young people; the Overcrowding Pathfinders Pilots, which allowed local authority pathfinders to explore ways to tackle overcrowding and under-occupation and a cut of £1.3 million to a budget titled ‘supporting social tenants into work’.
Richard Exell
One week after Play Day, Michael Gove has frozen the Playbuilder scheme. (Last month Nicola reported rumours that this was going to happen.)
Nicola Smith
Local Home Start services, local family sypport charities that support parent volunteers to assist other families that are struggling to cope, are reportedly facing funding crises.
