Rt Hon David Blunkett, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, has reacted with dismay to the proposed cuts to the Children and Young People service’s budget published by the Lib Dem controlled Sheffield City Council.
The Council has published its Interim Budget Report 2010-11 and 2011-12, in which it proposes a £3.15 million cut in the local education budget by the end of this financial year – and a £70 million cut over four years.
Mr Blunkett said that he was “appalled” that the proposed cuts also target the Area Based Grant, which is directed by its very nature at the most vulnerable areas of the city.
Mr Blunkett said: “I will be meeting the executive director of children’s services, Sonia Sharp, this Friday – and I hope to discuss with her the extent of the catastrophic consequences of these proposed cuts on provision for early years right through to child protection.
“Even at this late stage, I hope that we can persuade the City Council to abandon their policy of targeting cuts at the most disadvantaged communities.”
Mr Blunkett added: “The reductions in the Area Based Grant sit ill at ease with David Cameron’s rhetoric about the ‘Big Society’. On the one hand the Prime Minister lectures us about the need for individuals to help themselves; on the other, his Government pulls the plug on any possibility of them doing so by slashing the Area Based Grant – while the Lib Dems meekly go along with it.”
ENDS
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