Anger over cuts to Fund money

Children’s Fund money will be cut by around £50m over the next
two years, Community Care‘s sister title 0-19
revealed this week.

A letter sent last week to programme managers by Children’s Fund
director Kathy Bundred says that the budget for the next two years
will fall from £300m to £250m.

Over-allocation of funds, which this year amounted to £16m, is
believed to be behind the cuts. Other financial commitments to
initiatives such as identification, referral and tracking systems
have also taken cash away from programmes.

At a meeting last week with charities including NCH, the NSPCC and
Barnardo’s, proposals to axe third wave programmes which have yet
to sign contracts with service providers were rejected.

This means that across-the-board cuts may need to be made and
programme managers are now being forced to make decisions about
which of their projects to save.

Managers are angry and want an explanation as to how the
over-allocation by the now defunct Children and Young People’s Unit
was allowed to happen.

– Go to www.zero2nineteen.co.uk