Bath & North East Somerset Council has said it will ‘wield a scalpel, not a machete’, as it makes cuts to its funding of local charities — a move some have warned could be “catastrophic”.
The Guildhall in Bath
The council is planning to cut £802,000 from its community support contracts funding charities and “third sector” organisations’ work to support the area’s most vulnerable, as it aims to plug the £24m budget gap it faces for the next financial year.
But there has been outcry against the move from the charity sector.
Bath-based charity Developing Health & Independence (DHI) warned the council the cuts could have “catastrophic consequences” for the most vulnerable and cost the local authority more in the long run if people get no support and rely on council-funded services.
Chair of the charity Alison Miller told the council’s scrutiny panel on children, adults, health and wellbeing on 15th January: “The impact of cuts in this area would be disproportionate.”
A week later, on 23rd January, Mark Elliott faced a grilling from councillors over the move at a meeting of the council’s corporate scrutiny panel.
He told the panel: “We are not in the business of shooting ourselves in the foot.
“If there are contracts that are shown to be providing value for money because they are saving us money downstream because they are stopping people going into statutory services which cost more, then we absolutely should not be cutting those services. We would be stupid to do so.”
He said the council would work with the organisations to avoid “a cliff edge” but warned that cuts had to be made.
He stated that some of the contracts had not been looked at for up to 15 years and said it was “entirety reasonable” to look at them again.
He said: “We are in a position where we are going to have to be making some financial savings. We do not want to be wielding a machete, we want to be wielding a scalpel.”
Becky Brookes, director of 3SG, which supports third-sector organisations in Bath and North East Somerset, told the panel: “Third sector organisations across [Bath and North East Somerset] support tens of thousands of the most vulnerable and employ thousands of staff. […] This is now at risk.”
She warned that groups had been left “feeling insecure and vulnerable,” unable to plan for the next year, and unable to commit to continuing to employ staff.
She added that holding the consultation over the cuts over Christmas and New Year had given them less time to respond to the proposals.
Mr Elliott apologised to charities the news of the cuts had come so late.
He said: “We found ourselves in a position quite late on in the process where we were still having to look for savings and we were trying to protect this area.”
Other moves proposed in the budget include ending free parking in Midsomer Norton and Radstock and a hike in council tax of the maximum 4.99% allowed (two percentage points of which will be ring-fenced for spending on adult social care).
The budget will go before the council cabinet on 8th February and be voted on by a meeting of the full council on 20th February.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
