Birmingham Council leader defends service cuts amid fears for city’s vulnerable residents

The leader of Birmingham City Council has defended recent cuts to local services which sparked fears for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. After finding itself engulfed by a financial crisis, the city council passed through an unprecedented budget in March with an enormous array of proposed cuts.

In the months which have followed, there have been many controversial decisions as the local authority looks to balance the books. A number of these have triggered concerns that some vulnerable Brummies are paying the price for the local authority’s financial woes.

This was particularly clear in the ongoing row over the council’s plans to close adult social care day centres, which were recently approved by cabinet. The proposals were to close four such centres - Beeches GoLDD, The Fairway, Harborne and Heartlands - and move the services to the five remaining day centres in Birmingham.

READ MORE: Fury over Birmingham day centres as government commissioner defends ‘interventions’

The centres provide support and opportunities to make friends and gain new skills for those with learning and physical disabilities, autism and dementia. Last month saw tempers flare as carers and relatives of service users angrily interrupted a council meeting, with one woman telling councillors: “If you’re taking the centres away, I’ve nothing to live for.”

Months prior to those tense scenes, the council controversially also took the axe to its special needs transport service. It warned previously that its financial crisis meant taxi and minibus services, which had been commonly used to transport pupils to special needs schools, would now only be provided to those of sixth-form age in "exceptional circumstances” - despite still being used for younger children.

Support for older teenagers is now mostly provided through a personal transport budget or a pass for use on public transport. John Cotton, leader of Birmingham City Council, was asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service this week whether the impact on vulnerable people would be lessened in the future.

“These are really tough decisions to take,” he said. “In Birmingham’s case, we’ve taken some decisions that other councils have taken some time ago - particularly around Home to School transport and day centre provision as well.

“I think it’s important to remember that there continues to be an offer around Home to School transport and we're continuing to provide some in-house day centre provision as well. Obviously we're reducing the number but there will be care and support packages there for everybody who needs and is entitled to them.

“But what we’ve tried to do, whilst dealing with some really big challenges around how you close that budget gap, was to try and protect the most vulnerable from the worst effects. So that’s why we’ve safeguarded the council tax support scheme and why we're still providing some support in those two areas [Home to School transport and day centres]."

Going forwards, he said the focus for the council when it comes to dealing with its financial issues should be on efficiencies and transformation, as well as minimising the impact on frontline services. “Some of the stuff necessarily needs to transform on the frontline because people live very different lives now and interact with councils in very different ways," he said.

“But that transformation has to be the key going forward, rather than just the constant reduction of service provision.”

'We need to save on costs'

On the Home to School transport, the council said earlier this year it recognised “difficult decisions need to be taken” to protect statutory services for vulnerable children and young people, as well as their families.

“We appreciate the revisions recently made to the travel assistance policy are a big change for those families impacted,” a council spokesperson continued. “This is why we have given families as much notice as possible and have made support available from the team.”

On day centres, Coun Rob Pocock, who is overseeing the local authority’s transformation, recently said in a statement: “We need to save on costs and the remaining centres need to be fully utilised. Citizens using our centres have said they want to have a wider variety of activities outside the day centres and this is what we are also developing, as part of a more modern 21st century service".

Mr Pocock added that re-location plans for citizens would be “person-centred” and a social worker would also support every citizen affected by the proposal. The council has found itself facing financial woes amid Birmingham-specific factors, such as the disastrous implementation of a new IT and finance system and an equal pay fiasco, as well as other issues such as the rising demand for services and funding cuts.