Bath charities have welcomed the decision to slow down council cuts to their funding, but warned that services are already “stretched incredibly thin”.
Charities and “third sector” organisations learned over Christmas that Bath & North East Somerset Council planned to cut £802,000 from the funding it gives them to help the most vulnerable through “community support contracts”.
The move came as the council had to plug a £24.5 million budget gap, but charities warned that in addition to pushing more people into rough sleeping, the cut would end up costing the council more in the long run as more people would need to rely on statutory social care services.
Now the council has agreed to slow down the planned cut and spread it over two years, with a £400,000 cut to happen in 2024/25, and a further £402,000 to be cut in 2025/26.
At the council’s budget setting meeting on Tuesday 20th February, council cabinet member for resources Mark Elliott (Lansdown, Liberal Democrats) insisted: “There is no cliff edge cut in their spending.”
He added that he had given guarantees to the charities and organisations that the council would carry out a systematic review “with them” and not impose things on them. He said: “Where services can be shown to be saving the council money by preventing people calling on council-run services, those services will obviously not be cut.”
A host of services run by Bath-based homelessness charity Julian House are among those at risk in the cuts, including its Manvers Street Hostel and criminal justice service which helps people access housing and support when they leave prison.
Roanne Wootten, strategic partnerships director at Julian House, said: “While the news that changes will be made over two years is welcome, cuts are still cuts. With no budget uplift for 13 years, our services are already stretched incredibly thin.
“Julian House and the wider Homelessness Partnership remain committed to working with the council to make strategic choices, and we welcome the comments made by Mark Elliot and his fellow councillors promising that services that ultimately save the council money will not be cut. “
Speaking at the meeting last Tuesday, Mr Elliot said: “If it turns out that the savings we’ve proposed really aren’t achievable when assessed in that way, then so-be-it. But we spend over £9m on over 40 contracts in this space, and they haven’t been looked at for quite some time, so it seems reasonable to think that some savings can be made.”
Among the people to warn against the cuts in the weeks running up to the budget being approved was Michael Dixon, who slept rough for eight years on and off before a Julian House outreach team met him and brought him to the Manvers Street Hostel.
He said: “This is a vital ground service that leads to a lot of other services. If services like this were cut, it could lead to people not getting services higher up.”
He added: “They shouldn’t be making cuts. They should be building more of these places.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
