“Tories should drop plan to cut children’s services and support ContactPoint”

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“Tories should drop plan to cut children’s services and support ContactPoint” – Balls

By The Labour Party ⋅ February 4, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment
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Labour’s Children’s Secretary Ed Balls is today calling on the Conservative Party to drop their plans to cut the budget for children’s services by £300m from April and to support the ContactPoint database which was a key recommendation of the Victoria Climbie inquiry.

Conservative spending plans would see the non-schools budget of the Department for Children, Schools and Families cut by £300m in 2009/10 – equivalent to around £2m of cuts per local authority in England.

Ed Balls MP, Labour’s Children’s Secretary, speaking ahead of this evening’s opposition day debate on child protection, said:

“Social workers do a really difficult job, often in extremely challenging circumstances and they have a vital role in protecting children and young people from harm. That’s why our new social work taskforce has been asked to identify any barriers social workers face in doing their jobs effectively and to make recommendations for improvements and long-term reform in social work.

“But the Tory commitment to cut £300m from children’s services this year would be disastrous. This is the equivalent of £2m of cuts to every local authority children’s services department in England, just at the time when we need to continue investing to improve these vital services.

“If the Conservatives are serious about child protection, they would support ContactPoint and drop their pledge to scrap it. It was a key recommendation of Lord Laming’s inquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbie and is supported by organisations such as the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Royal College of Nursing and the British Association of Social Workers.

“ContactPoint will help those who work with children to intervene earlier and prevent problems escalating. It will help make sure no child slips through the net of support services. It’s unfortunate that David Cameron regularly cites it as an example of government waste and has pledged to scrap it in order to make savings. ContactPoint is essential to keep children safe and David Cameron should think again.”

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