Jack Abbott, MP candidate for Ipswich, blasts Suffolk County Council decision to cut funding to children’s centres

Plans to cut funding from children’s centres have been labelled ‘incredibly short-sighted’ by a Labour Parliamentary candidate.

The cut, amounting to £717,000, is part of Suffolk County Council’s proposed 2024-25 budget, set to be discussed by members of the scrutiny committee on Thursday.

Last week, the council announced difficult decisions would need to be made to balance the books in what is its most challenging budget-setting process.

Labour candidate for Ipswich, Jack Abbott, has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to criticise the council’s decision to cut the funding, labelled in the papers under ‘redesign family hub service’.

In a thread, he said: “A £700,000 cut will hollow out Suffolk’s network of children’s centres even further.

“Given past experience, it is unlikely that ‘redesign’ is anything other than a creative way of saying ‘closures’.”

The proposal follows two previous rounds of cuts, in 2015 and 2020, which saw the number of children’s centres reduce from 47 to 29, some of which operate in part-time hours only.

Mr Abbott also warned the cut would affect areas in rural Suffolk that are already left with limited access to certain services.

However, the council maintains it will continue to support families across the county with new approaches for the delivery of services stemming from lessons learned during the pandemic.

Councillor James Reeder, cabinet member for children and young people’s services, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic and advances in technology have altered the way some families choose to access services, for example, some services can now be delivered virtually.

“While a redesign of our Family Hubs model will mean some changes, we are committed to providing steadfast help and support from our staff and partners to keep families strong and together.

“We need a Family Hub Model that supports flexible ways of accessing and delivering services for families.”

Cllr Reeder added that a public consultation would be held to hear from families to align the proposed redesign with their needs.

However, Mr Abbott is not convinced the consultation will serve its purpose and believes the council has already made up its mind on where savings will be made.

He added: “There’s no way they are going to able to make those savings without closing children centres or cutting services.

“While you may be able to provide some services remotely, a lot of children’s centres offer a real safe haven and are described as life-changing.

“This is coming at the worst possible time when you’re meant to be helping people recover and rebuild post-Covid, and you’re taking away the very support structures they need to get on — it’s an incredibly short-sighted, damaging decision.”

A spokesperson at the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), said they were concerned with the number of cuts to early help and preventative services local authorities are making, although the broader context of Government underfunding should also be taken into consideration.

In May 2022, the Government’s independent review of children’s social care concluded local authorities would need £2bn over five years to address issues in family health provision.

To date, the spokesperson said, the Government has only committed £200m additional investment, leaving many local authorities starved of resources to address mounting pressures.