Cuts could see child services in Cornwall lose outstanding rating, councillor fears
The department is being asked to make savings of over £5million
The former leader of Cornwall Council has said he is concerned that cuts to children’s services could see it lose its outstanding rating.
Cornwall Council’s children’s services were rated as outstanding by Ofsted inspectors in 2019 having failed an inspection in 2008.
The council had worked hard to carry out improvements to the service which led to it achieving the highest rating possible.
However the council is now considering a draft budget which will see the service having to make savings of £5.2million in 2022/23 and some councillors are concerned that this could lead to a drop in quality.
Independent councillor Julian German, former leader of the council, spoke about his fears at a meeting of the council’s customer and support service overview and scrutiny committee.
"It is very difficult to build outstanding services"
He said: "The cuts to children’s services are really, really difficult. It takes a long time to move the service forward, a decade of work led to really outstanding children’s services.
"These cuts are going to lead to a more challenging position for our young people and our staff.
"It is very difficult to build outstanding services and easier to destroy them".
Cllr German said that he was concerned that the budget plans and the savings proposed in children’s services did not line up with the council’s aim to make Cornwall a brilliant place to be a child and grow up.
He said: "It will be a slightly worse place to grow up than it has been for the last few years due to these budget cuts".
"A really, really poor decision"
The Roseland councillor said that in the savings he was concerned about cuts to specific services.
"From my personal point of view the cuts to Cornwall Outdoors (outdoor education service) and Cornwall music education hub and giving that grant back to the Arts Council due to the management overheads we have built in is a really, really poor decision".
Last week the council’s children and families overview and scrutiny committee raised concerns about the proposed savings in children’s services.
Councillors from Mebyon Kernow, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent groups had all supported a call to reverse the savings and instead invest more in the service. However, it was lost when put to the vote.
A final decision on the budget plans for the council will be made next month when the full council meets.