Councillors ask for clarity over plans to save £2m in children’s services after ‘ruthless’ cuts

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The city council's Loxley House HQ

The city council's Loxley House HQ

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

A Nottingham councillor has asked for clarity over plans to save £2m in Nottingham City Council’s children’s services following years of “ruthless” cuts.

The Labour led authority has proposed a raft of new savings and cuts, including £17.9m to be delivered next year and £24m over the next four years, in a bid to set a balanced budget as required each year.

It’s planning to save £2m in its children’s services over the 2025 to 2029 period through what budget documents say will be a “children’s operating model redesign”.

However, during a Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee meeting on Wednesday (January 15), councillors questioned where exactly the savings would be made – and what the proposals mean.

Cllr Georgia Power (Lab) said the committee was unable to scrutinise the proposals based off “four words”.

“Do you think what has been given to us today, this item, is adequate?” she said.

“So if this was given to you, the budget, and there were no papers to read beforehand, and it was a presentation which had four words relating to a £2m budget item with no detail behind it, would you find that acceptable?”

Sarah Nardone, interim corporate director for children and education services, said there will be a “suite of efficiencies”, including using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist caseworkers, and intervening earlier with families to prevent future intervention by costlier services.

“It is how we work smarter, and how we work with the right children and young people at the right time, and for the right duration,” she said.

“As we work this through we can share more information, but it is dependent on a number of things coming together to enable us to, in some respects, work differently with children and families.”

She added that some children and families are being given support they may not necessarily need, and said the focus would be on Government reforms, family help, and supporting children earlier before they need intervention from statutory services.

Cllr Maria Joannou (Lab) also questioned why the savings were not made before community support, including youth and play services, were cut as part of previous budget decisions.

“We’ve made massive, massive cuts to our front-line services before we ruthlessly, I think, got rid of all our youth and playgroups,” she said.

“I can’t help feeling had we, at the very beginning, looked at this it would have been a very different position in terms of our frontline provision.

“Why weren’t we at the very beginning looking at this, and certainly looking at the tiers of managers as well, before we ruthlessly went in and just got rid of youth and play groups?

“I think this is great but it’s a bit late in the day given what we have already lost.”

Ms Nardone said: “I don’t disagree.

“I don’t know why those decisions were made to take the approach we did previously. It is fair to say that it is an acknowledgement that is not the approach the council wants to take going forward, hence this being a whole council transformation, including the directorates.”

The Labour-led authority says its budget gap for the year beginning April 2025 has reduced from £69m to £23.4m.

An overall cumulative budget gap over the next four years has also fallen from £172m to £56.8m.

Councillors must approve its budget for the year beginning April 2025 at the beginning of March.

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