‘Vulnerable children’ at risk through government cuts

Posted: October 2, 2015

Posted in: Personal Injury 

According to a nursing union, cuts being made to the Barnsley budget for children and young people will “risk vulnerable children dying”. This comes about as Barnsley Council has made the decision to cut its spending on young people’s services from £6.5m to £4.8m, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Barnsley Council has rejected this figure, saying that the cut is in fact £1m, not £1.7m. It also argued that this would still mean they were spending over the national average.

The council explained that they would reduce spending to £4.8m, plus a start-up amount of £150,000 – resulting in a 17% reduction in spending. The leader of labour-run Barnsley Council, Sir Steve Houghton, said that these cuts are the knock-on effect of government cuts, which have seen public health grants cut by £200m. He also said that when you examine the spending of local authorities all over the UK, Barnsley are still spending far more on children and young people than many other councils.

“budget cut will leave an unsafe service”

Royal College of Nursing steward Paul Smith said there are definitely other ways the council could deal with these government cuts. He said: “The council might think there are some savings that can be made. But this scale of budget cut will leave an unsafe service and risk vulnerable children dying. The children of Barnsley deserve better than this.”

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