Leak reveals 282 frontline posts at risk, but only nine in finance
Published: 3 December, 2010
by TERRY MESSENGER
STAFF working with children bear the brunt of job losses
Children and young people are bearing the main impact of cuts in Town Hall services, a leaked report reveals this week.
Of the 282 staff earmarked for redundancy, 137 work in children’s services – nearly half the total of jobs at risk.
Job cuts in the Labour-run borough are falling 10 times as hard on services for children as they are in its finance department.
The news has appalled Town Hall unions, which said that, while all job cuts were painful, the axe had fallen most cruelly on children and the people who help them.
Islington Unison branch secretary Jane Doolan said: “The council are saying they want to protect the vulnerable but I don’t see any of that here. That doesn’t fit with the reality at all.”
But Labour children and young people chief Richard Watts blamed the Coalition government, claiming: “This is a consequence of savage cuts inflicted on poorer areas like Islington.”
The 137 people lined up for redundancy in children’s services amount to 15 per cent of the department. This compares with nine finance staff facing the axe in a department of 571 – or 1.5 per cent.
Connexions young people’s advice service is the council project hardest hit by the redundancies, with 44 of its 56 staff set to lose their jobs.
The service helps young people to get into jobs and college courses, find homes and access health treatment – especially vulnerable young people, including those leaving council care.
Islington Unison education convenor Rosemary Plummer said: “Our members in this service support the youth and talk to them at their level and that’s why it works.
“One of the biggest issues in this borough is knife crime and Connexions helps steer young people away from this sort of trouble.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen if the service isn’t there to help.”
Cllr Watts acknowledged the severity of the job cuts but said schools, with control over their own budgets, would be asked to step in to fill gaps.
He insisted that young people with learning difficulties and those in danger of falling into crime would still be helped by Connexions.
But he conceded that Connexions would no longer target other vulnerable young people, known as NEETs – not in employment, education or training.
Four out of six social workers working for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) will lose jobs under the council’s current plan.
Unison deputy secretary Mike Calvert said: “There will be children and adolescents who are really troubled mentally who’ll just fall right through the system.”
Ten deputy managers at 16 children’s centres are also due to lose their jobs.
Cllr Watts said that the axed children’s services were largely funded by grant to poorer boroughs like Islington from the former Labour government.
“I’m not going to pretend these cuts are painless – they will have quite serious consequences,” he added. “When the government says the cuts won’t effect frontline services, it shows how misleading they are being.”
The leaked report reveals that a total of 136 staff are due to lose their jobs in the council’s other three departments.
Labour council leader Councillor Catherine West stressed that £1.1m savings were expected from redundancies among senior staff earning more than £75,000 a year, although very top staff have been temporarily spared owing to the ditching of the plan to merge their team with Camden Council’s management.
While the council has promised to minimise compulsory job losses, its redundancy policy, also leaked to the Tribune, states: “Requests for voluntary redundancy or early retirement... will not normally be agreed where there are sufficient posts available in the new structure.”