Hertfordshire LibDems Protest Against Tory Plan of £391,000 Cut to HomeStart and Vulnerable Children in the County

Liberal Democrat members of Hertfordshire County Council Children's Services Cabinet Panel yesterday were appalled to receive additional papers at short notice announcing the withdrawal of the annual £391,000 grant to the 9 HomeStart operations which cover the county. HomeStart's role will now be added to the increasingly complex range of tasks to be handled by the 91 Children's Centres.

By withdrawing the £391,00 annual grant to the nine HomeStart centres across the county on the basis that it could be supplied by Children's Centres, the Conservative County Council is putting the future stability of 395 client families at risk. Without the close support of the Homestart volunteers who help them in their homes, many of these families will suffer. Likewise the local HomeStart teams will almost certainly have to close for lack of sufficient funding.

The Conservatives admit that through HomeStart the families currently receive 80,000 hours of support, they will in future only receive 25,000 hours per annum from Children's Centres, and crucially the quality of this support will be fundamentally different. By the Council's own admission, the service provided by HomeStart is popular and wide ranging. The volunteers support vulnerable families and help them handle problems which can cover social isolation, child behaviour management, children under 5 with disabilities, domestic abuse and drug and alcohol abuse to name but a few.

The responsibility for these services will pass to the already overstretched network of Children's Centres which are themselves reeling from a 14% cut in fees, resulting in a total reorganisation taking place in the last few weeks with a completely new management structure. They will not have the resources needed to give the quality support these families desperately need.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Mark Watkin commented "I am horrified by this decision. At a stroke, a financially led decision is destroying a long-standing and experienced network of skilled managers and volunteers and replacing them with an untried service which only came into effect a few weeks ago.

"The Liberal Democrats on HCC are opposed to this backwards step for the the most vulnerable families in Hertfordshire.

"The fundamental flaw in this decision is that it fails to recognise that HomeStart is successful because its volunteers are trusted by their clients and are seen as being separate from the County's Social Services with all the stigma that that carries. I predict a significant proportion of their clients will have nothing to do with Children's Centres.

I challenge the County to explain:

• How this reorganisation will actually save money?
• How will the outcomes for these families and their children be protected?
• How will the hard-stretched Children's Centres possibly cope without recruiting additional staff?"