20 Cuts to Birmingham City Council’s children and families services

They are too young to vote but some of Birmingham’s most vulnerable children and teenagers will bear the brunt of the city’s huge council cuts.

The Labour-run authority’s budget, which was passed following a vote of the full council on March 5, sets out in detail how it will raise council tax and slash services across the city – including those which support children and families.

Among others, the savage budget “savings” impact youth services, non-statutory transport packages for Post-16 and early help projects, the last of which Birmingham Children’s Trust plans to rescue by taking on the investment.

After an often-heated debate at the council house last Tuesday, the majority of Labour councillors voted it through despite some expressing misgivings over the budget cuts.

The council ended up in its dire financial situation thanks to Birmingham-specific issues, such as an equal pay fiasco and the disastrous implementation of a new IT and finance system, as well as other factors such as rising demand for services and the impact of years of austerity, with council leader John Cotton warning of a “raging crisis” across local government.

One running theme amid the storm of criticism from opposition councillors during the meeting was the impact the enormous range of budget cuts and changes could have on the city’s young people.

Get the latest headlines, straight to your inbox, with BirminghamWorld’s free emails The Conservative Party’s Matt Bennett warned young people could become more vulnerable to “criminal elements” while Green Party councillor Julien Pritchard read out heartfelt letters about Maypole Youth Centre.

Anxious campaigners and residents across Birmingham have also voiced their fears, with anti-violence campaigner Alison Cope arguing that youth services were vital to “counteract” the negative influence of social media in schools.

A spokesperson for Birmingham City Council said last week that it continues to work with its partners in West Midlands Police and schools across the city to engage with young people. We will do all that we can to minimise the impact on the frontline services that protect young people and their families right across our city,” they added.

Previously addressing the alarm that budget cuts would cause to parents and families, council leader John Cotton said: “What’s really important is that we use our statutory consultation processes to engage with families and to engage with citizens around how we take those proposals forward. But this is a very difficult budget to bring forward and we’ve very much aware of that and the decisions we have to take.”

The full list of “savings” under ‘Children and Families’ put forward by Birmingham City Council can be found below.

1) Services for young people, an independent review of the careers, youth and 14-19 services. The redesigned service will need to deliver statutory duties to support young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) and ensure 14 to 25 access to employment, training and education.

2) Commissioning of Early Help Contracts for Children, Young People and Families, this is a proposal to end direct Council funding of Early Help services for children, young people and families to deliver £8.4m of recurring savings from 24/25.

3) Funding to Vulnerable Young People at Risk of Exploitation, this saving is a funding switch from General Fund to Public Health grant to fund existing support services for young carers, and young people who are vulnerable to criminal and sexual exploitation who are supported by the EmpowerU team

4) Review of non-statutory transport packages (Post 16), this proposal is a review of non-statutory transport packages for Post-16 young people following a review of the travel assistance policy. Current service provision for this cohort will be reduced.

5) Reduction of contract sum for Birmingham Children’s Trust, the annual contract sum will be reduced on April 1, 2024. The Trust will be required to deliver a range of savings which may include staff savings, reduction in preventative services, reductions in care costs and efficiency savings.

6) Headcount reductions in Children and Families, the staffing structure will be reduced with four posts deleted and 32 vacancies not recruited to.

7) Realigning Dedicated Schools Grant, this saving will be delivered through realigning the Dedicated Schools Grant in accordance with the terms of the grant.

8) Children’s Travel Agency Passenger Assistants Reprocurement, this saving results from procuring agency passenger assistants through the new procurement framework. 

9) Termination of contract for the existing Children and Young People’s Travel Service (CYPTS) database, this saving is associated with ending the contract for the CYPTS database due to the introduction of an in-house database with improved functionality and better integration with ICT systems. 

10) Establishment of Permanent Children’s Travel Service Structure, this saving is the result of the proposed move of the Children and Young People’s Travel Service to a permanent staffing structure from April 2024. 

11) Optimisation of Bus Passes, this saving results from the optimisation of bus passes awarded by the Children’s Travel Service 

12) Passenger Assistance service re-design, this saving is a result of a service redesign of the passenger assistance team once a permanent Children and Young People’s Travel Service structure is in place.

13) Reviewing transport packages provided to school age pupils receiving statutory school transport, this saving is due to reviewing transport packages for school age children receiving statutory school transport, and young people starting with the most historic to ensure consistent application of the eligibility criteria in the 2019 travel assistance policy.

14) Increase to Fees and Charges, increasing fees and charges for all traded services by circa 10 per cent.

15) Release Children & Families Transformation Reserve, transformation reserve for Children and families can be released by absorbing transformation activity into business as usual.

16) Release of centrally held budgets, proposal that the budget assigned for Learning and Development for the Children and Families directorate will no longer be used. The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Independent Advice and Support Service will be moving to a permanent structure in 2024 so a one off centrally held amount will not be required.

17) Children’s Travel Transport Contracts Re-procurement, these savings are a result of the implementation of a framework agreement for the provision of Children and Young People’s Travel Service.

18) Children’s Services efficiencies, a detailed work plan to deliver appropriate redesign and efficiencies to be delivered from 2025/26 will be provided after six months’ work with an improvement partner.

19) Saving on the cost of Prudential Borrowing for Schools Basic Need Projects, in order to ensure there are sufficient school places for children in Birmingham, the Children and Families Directorate was allocated £19.656m of corporate funding, which would require borrowing and attract financing costs. The Children and Families Directorate have agreed £14.200m can be returned to the corporate centre.

20) Borrowing the £14.200m would have generated a revenue financing cost of £0.710m pa. As the budget for borrowing and financing costs is held centrally, this saving will be taken from a corporate centre budget, but the initiative is being led by the Children & Families Directorate.