Public Urged To Take Part In Consultation On West Sussex Budget Cuts

Labour councillors have urged people to take part in a public consultation about West Sussex County Council’s budget proposals for 2024/25.

The proposals include £11.8million of reductions to the various portfolio budgets, including £4.4million from children & young people, learning & skills, and £3.9million from adults services – the two portfolios which take up the highest proportions of the over-all budget.

Coupled with a maximum council tax increase, this could reduce the 2024/25 budget gap from £44.9million to £4.4million.

Alison Cornell (Langley Green & Ifield East) said:

“After 13 years of austerity cuts – generally packaged as efficiency savings – it would surely be reasonable to assume we are as ‘efficient’ as it’s possible to be!

“So to take this much out of such an important budget by February can really only be seen as cuts.”

Mrs Cornell sits on the children & young people’s scrutiny committee, which is due to look at the council’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) recovery plan in November.

An inspection of the service is expected soon after.

She added:

“I hope people will engage with the consultation on these budget proposals when it begins – we will certainly be encouraging people to do so. 

“We simply cannot allow any further failures for this most vulnerable and deserving group.”

Fellow committee member Dawn Smith (Broadwater) described the reductions as ‘troubling’ adding:

“To cut over £4million from the children & young people, learning & skills budget is shocking.

“It has taken incredible work and focus to pull children’s services back from the brink following the disastrous 2019 Ofsted report and we all celebrate that work – but four years in, it still ‘requires Improvement’ – there is much yet to do.”

While this is true, Ofsted’s last inspection, in March, praised the ‘strong, determined and cohesive leadership team’ and their ‘relentless approach to improving practice’ which saw significant improvements since 2019.

While looking at ways to reduce spending, the council also has to respond to service pressures which demand money.

As such, the plan is to include £52.5m to cover the pressures across seven portfolios, particularly children & young people, with another £36.8m built in to cover inflationary pressures.

Natalie Pudaloff (Lab, Northgate) said proposals to reduce the budget for carers information, advice, assessment and support contract by £322,000 would put pressure on carers as well as other NHS and social care services.

Ms Pudaloff, who sits on the health & adult social care scrutiny committee, added:

“When the CEO of Carers Support says, in a 2023 report [that] ‘carers describe their circumstances in the last year as being crushing’ we should listen.

“Cutting this support is such an inappropriate response.”

Fellow committee member Graham McKnight (Worthing West) said budget cuts were ‘another step in the wrong direction for those of us who rely on these services’.

He added:

“I’ve been working with charitable organisations in Worthing who raise awareness and provide support to local residents, but the charitable sector is not equipped to plug gaps left in the wake of past and present cuts to public services budgets.”

In an online statement, leader Paul Marshall said:

“Every penny we spend must provide good value for money, be cost effective, and contribute to our council priorities.

“As budgets continue to be stretched and demand for our services expands it’s more important than ever to spend our money – and our residents’ council tax – wisely.”

In the meantime, the council will continue to send a message to the government about the financial problems facing authorities up and down the country.

Jeremy Hunt, cabinet member for finance & property, said:

“[We will] continue our collaborative lobbying of government to ensure they recognise the funding constraints and rising demand that is having a severe impact not only on many of our own services but on the financial resilience of our whole local government sector.”

The budget proposals will be the subject of a six-week online public consultation, which will run from Monday October 30 until Sunday December 10.