GMB Call On Sheffield City Council To Postpone Changes In Children’s Services

7 Jan 2013

GMB CALL ON SHEFFIELD CITY COUNCIL TO POSTPONE CHANGES IN CHILDREN’S SERVICES TO NOVEMBER TO ALLOW TIME TO ASSESS FUNDING SWITCHES

The report to the Council is hiding the reality that these are cuts which will damage vulnerable children and young people and mean job losses says GMB

GMB, the union for public service workers, is calling on Sheffield City Council to postpone proposed changes in services for Children and young people to allow time for proper consultation on the proposals and to assess impact of funding switches by central government.

At the Sheffield City Council full cabinet meeting 12th December 2012 GMB members employed in Children’s Services raised a number of questions on a report from the Children and Young People Scrutiny and Policy Development Committee which met on 9th December.

GMB call for the Council to postpone the changes is in a written report and complaint to a special meeting of Sheffield City Council Scrutiny Board Meeting which was scheduled for 9th January but has now been cancelled. Set out in notes to Editors are a few of the key questions that were asked at that meeting and the main points that GMB have picked out of the report that was approved by the Cabinet on 12 December.

Peter Davies GMB organizer said “The report to the Council from the Children and Young People Scrutiny and Policy Development Committee is hiding the reality that these are cuts which will damage vulnerable children and young people and mean job losses.

We have a report that lists the advantages to these cuts. We need to ask ourselves why the report not only justifies these cuts but actually sells them to the people of Sheffield, the service users and employees, as positive and justified cuts. In short, the report implies that the current service is and therefore must have been a gross misuse of public sector money. This is far from the truth and is a distortion.

GMB will oppose these cuts through every means at our disposal. In the mean time we would urge the Council to at the very least, postpone the proposed funding cut date (March 2013) to allow for meaningful and proper consultation to take place with service users, their communities, providers, employees and their respective trade unions. By extending the ‘cessation’ date to November 2013, for example, we would not only be able to engage in the consultation process properly, we would also be able to assess how the switch in the way early years services are to be funded by the government would work in Sheffield and particular through our changing school environment and NHS.”

Sheffield Early Years Children’s Centres - Cuts Update - Jan 2013.pdf
Save Our Early Years Centres Flyer.pdf