News / Politics
Greens, Lib Dems and Tories unite to criticise budget amendment
In a rare show of cross-party unity at City Hall, councillors from the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have united to criticise a Labour amendment to Bristol City Council’s budget.
The amendment, due to be debated and voted on at a full council meeting on Thursday, seeks to create new children’s homes – but councillors claim without the necessary planning to achieve the best outcomes for the children involved.
Christine Townsend, chair of the children & young people policy committee, said: “Despite Labour committee members being involved in the ongoing planned work, this amendment ignores professional advice, demonstrates a deep-seated lack of knowledge and fails to understand progress in this area to date.
“The Bristol Labour Party appears to have a collective lack of basic interest in the needs of children that the entire council is responsible for, and instead is putting forward an approach that puts money first.
“This is not the correct approach when tasked with enabling children to recover, grow and thrive in adolescence so they can move into early adulthood with emotional security.”
“This amendment did not pass last year, and it will not this year. Labour must withdraw it.”
Christine Townsend says that Bristol’s Labour group “appears to have a collective lack of basic interest in the needs of children” – photo: Rob Browne
Bristol’s Conservative group education spokesperson, John Goulandris, said: “Labour’s budget amendment appears very muddled in its approach and is financially illiterate.
“Opening new children’s homes without proper planning and without checking likely demand for places is inevitably going to result in the homes operating with unfilled places – voids – which will make the cost of these homes even more expensive than the current private placements.
“It won’t help the council’s finances and it won’t help our city’s most disadvantaged children.”
Lib Dem member of the children & young people committee, Andrew Varney, added: “Responsibility for the children in our care is one of the most important functions of the city council.
“Often the most vulnerable members of our society, it is our duty to safeguard them, provide stability, and ensure that they can lead fulfilling lives away from harm.
“Once again, Labour have submitted an amendment that treats the children in our care as numbers, and the provision of their care as a financial saving to be made.
“Children’s homes must be planned carefully, professionally and with long‑term stability in mind.
“They should never be used as a political football between parties during budget season.
“I look forward to working constructively with the committee to continue to bring forward the homes and care that the children in our city need.”
Labour councillor Kerry Bailes said that there is often “nothing” for children who have finished schooling and were looking for opportunities – photo: Rob Browne
In a joint statement, Katja Hornchen, Sue Kollar and Kerry Bailes, the Labour members of the children & young people’s committee, said: “Out-of-area placements, where children in care are placed miles from their support networks, is one of the most significant challenges facing Bristol City Council.
“While every placement must be determined by what’s best for each individual child, it is generally accepted that, where it is appropriate, allowing children to stay in their home city results in better outcomes for them
“Of course, opening new council-owned children’s homes needs to careful planning.
“The budget is an accounting exercise – it is not the sign-off of immovable plans.
“The earliest the new council-owned homes would open would be, at minimum, 14 months from now.
“The Children’s Department has stated this amendment assumes that ‘between two and three children would transfer between provision which, given ten to 15 places would be created, is prudent’.
“Bristol City Council does not have enough space in its own children’s homes. Even if it did, having additional capacity is a good thing.
“In the second half of last year, there was an unforeseen increase in children requiring external placement.
“The council should have the capacity to manage unexpected increases demand and ensure they have a safe roof over their head in Bristol, if that’s in their best interest.
“More widely, there is a simple question for the administration. Is it better to provide public services in-house, or to outsource them – even when they provide a worse service?
“The Greens have made the choice: their budget plans are filled with outsourcing from top to bottom, particularly in relation to crucial Adult Social Care services.
“They want to cut costs by providing care services through the private sector, whose pay, workers’ rights, and pension contributions often fall far short of Bristol City Council.
“Yet, Green Party councillors have signed off on eye-watering increases in spending on executive director salaries – which has almost doubled since they came to office.
“The Labour government is boosting the council’s core spending power by £161.3m over the next four years. The Greens’ plans are not financial necessities, they’re political choices; the wrong ones.
“Under councillor Townsend’s watch, fully-built, council-owned children’s homes have sat empty for over a year, and the EHCP backlog reached a record high.
“In one month, just one per cent of children had their assessment in the 20-week statutory timeframe, making Bristol City Council the slowest council to process EHCPs in the entire country.
“Now, despite her fanfare, in the most recently published statistics, only 12 per cent of children are having their assessments on time. Compared to the national average of 46.4 per cent, it’s simply not good enough.
“These three political groups teamed up to pass a cut to respite breaks for carers of disabled children. This had awful consequences. Only Labour councillors attempted to get the administration to think twice about it.
“We won’t take any lectures from the Tories, whose only amendment would charge the city’s poorest more council tax, pushing Bristolians into poverty like their two child benefit cap did.
“After what their government did to the country, they should never be taken seriously ever again.
“One of the Liberal Democrats proposes to cutting funding that is intended to support homeless people.
“We find this unconscionable, but it should come as no surprise. Their brutal, punitive austerity measures in government had devasting consequences, from which society’s most vulnerable are still recovering.
“In relation to councillor Townsend’s claims in the original press release, repeated by councillor Jemphrey at full council, there are no Labour vacancies on the Corporate Parenting Panel.
“Both seats are filled. Either Councillor Townsend isn’t across her brief or is lying. She should clarify which.”
Main photo: Rob Browne
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