Revealed: How Public Ignored Cuts Consultation

Cuts to services for children and young people across Oldham worth £2.6m seem certain to go ahead as planned, after hardly any members of the public took part in a consultation on the proposals. Just one person attended three public meetings held before Christmas.

Among the planned savings are £500,000 from the budget for putting children in care at facilities outside the borough, and getting rid of five managers from the team which deals with youngsters who have the most complex disabilities, in a bid to save £299,000.

A further £200,000 will go from speech and language therapy for disabled youngsters, while an additional £100,000 will be saved by ending a project which involves early intervention with the families of the most seriously disabled children.

According to a report presented to last night’s meeting of Oldham Council’s scrutiny committee, the public consultation on the proposals ran between late November and early January. But the report given to councillors stated that feedback from the public had been “very poor.”

Three public meetings were held at different venues in Oldham on 15 December. One member of the public turned up at the meeting held during the afternoon at Gallery Oldham, but nobody at all took part in the morning meeting at the Civic Centre, and the evening event held in Fitton Hill.

The report said the meetings had been “advertised in the Oldham Chronicle” but clearly that was not enough to attract members of the public. A separate meeting with the parents of disabled children was held on 10 January, and that was attended by just three people.

The report also noted that the council’s “complaints teams and phone lines did not receive any feedback outlining worries or negative views” with regard to the proposed cuts. It therefore recommended that the proposed cuts should go ahead as planned.

The value of taking part in a public consultation could perhaps be shown by another part of the report, which focused on the consultation held about planned cuts to social care services for adults, including pensioners and the disabled.

A series of much better-attended meetings took place, and 152 people responded to a questionnaire. As a result of suggestions made during the consultation, several changes were made to the council’s proposals.

A total of £5.1m is to be saved from adult services. Among the cuts are £1.2m from a halving in vocational activities for disabled people. Also, the outsourcing of care in the home for pensioners and respite help for their carers to the private and voluntary sectors could save more than £1.5m.

A second public consultation has now begun over the latest set of budget proposals put forward by the Liberal Democrat/Conservative administration which controls Oldham Council. It’s due to run until 13 February.

In terms of children and young people, those proposals include a planned £920,000 cut from the budget for Sure Start children’s centres, as well as £785,000 from the Connexions service which provides information and support to teenagers.

A further £185,000 will go from Oldham’s Integrated Youth Service, which offers sport and other youth activities to local youngsters. No specifics are yet available, but it’s thought likely the service will continue, albeit with fewer programmes offered and on fewer days.

Two public meetings have been scheduled. The first will take place on Tuesday 1 February between 6pm and 7:30pm at Gallery Oldham, with the second on Friday 4 February between 11:30am and 1pm at the Civic Centre. More than 300 questionnaires have also been sent to the parents of children with disabilities.

Councillors will formally sign off the council’s budget for 2011/12 late next month.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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