Members of the Green group at Suffolk County Council, who form the official opposition, are ‘deeply disappointed’ by the decision made today by the council’s Reform UK Cabinet to makes cuts to its Healthy Child Service, which provides support for families with young children and school children via school nurses.
At the Cabinet meeting, members of the opposition groups at the council questioned the wisdom of cutting services that support vulnerable parents, especially as the risk and equality assessments of the new plans stated clearly that vulnerable residents might be worse off.
The report also detailed an Independent Review of the plans which highlighted risks to school nursing capacity, safeguarding and displacement of demand into other services.
Ash Lever, the Green Group’s Spokesperson for Children, Young People, Education and SEND, said:
“We are deeply disappointed at this decision, which makes it clear that the council administration is not prioritising the most vulnerable Suffolk residents as it should.
The Equality Impact Assessments for the new plans show adverse impacts on residents with disabilities, children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), families living rurally and those who are already socio-economically disadvantaged. The council’s report admits that these issues cannot be wholly addressed.
Cutting early help for families and young children often leads to a greater cost to the council’s social care services later on. It is essential that young parents, for example, receive the right support at the time they most need it.
The report confirms that the new model cannot provide young parents with the same levels of support as before.”
Laura Smith, Group Spokesperson for Public Health and Public Protection, said:
“We recognise that the council receives less money than it needs from the government for public health, this is true for many services it provides, including education and road maintenance.
However, it must balance this with its responsibility to vulnerable Suffolk residents, and the Healthy Child Service is invaluable to them.
The Reform UK administration at the council have been keen to present themselves as having to make hard choices financially, yet they are also planning to spend between £1m and £2m of taxpayers’ money to hold a referendum on housing people seeking asylum. The council has no say in whether people seeking asylum are housed in Suffolk, so this would just be wasted money.
They are also keen to present themselves as ‘saving’ Community Staff Nurses and ‘putting resource back into’ the School Nursing service, but you will notice that the report gives no indication of how many nurses’ jobs might be saved.
In fact, employees in the Young Parents Pathway, one of the services they consulted on, were informed back in February that they would lose their jobs. This is not a respectful way for the council to treat its workers.
The results of the public consultation suggest that the people of Suffolk very much agree with us that these cuts are wrong and will leave families worse off.”
