This week Liverpool's officers provided councillors with details of £90 million worth of savings for 2012-13 of which £50 million will have to be picked by the council by 7 March 2012. Among some suggestions of saving money include scrapping all council funding for large scale events and likely cut backs and closures to the city's library services; outsourcing of home care with potential savings of almost £4 million and the possible ending of the council's contribution to child and adolescent mental health services.

]]> The families of two autistic men have won a High Court case over cuts to social care by Isle of Wight Council.The judge ruled that the council's new criteria was unlawful and should be quashed by the court.
The council said that it was trying to save £1.6m by restricting council care to only the most pressing cases, where, under the new plans only vulnerable adults assessed as critical or at risk of becoming critical would qualify.

]]> Civil Justice Council says planned £350m reduction in legal aid budget will also result in courts and tribunals "struggling to manage their caseloads" and deny justice to the most vulnerable in society, a government-funded body warned on Friday.
"The equality impact assessment accompanying the [MoJ's] proposals for reducing the scope of legal aid contains an acknowledgement that the proposals will have a disproportionate impact upon women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities."

]]> A consortium of seven charities,including Charity Awards winner Place2Be, are the preferred bidders to run a £3m programme around the delivery of early-intervention mental health support to children and young people. The Bond Consortium stands for Better Outcomes, New Delivery includes Young Minds, Youth Access and Place2Be.

]]> A recent survey of 139 local authorities carried out by Local Government Information Unit about cuts to Supporting People(SP) revealed three-quarters had seen budgets cut. The report also showed that over half made savings by reducing levels of service provided.
Most councils believe cuts to housing support will creates costs in other parts of the system and put the vulnerable at risk, according to a new report released today.

]]> Real term cuts hit more than 200 areas of public spending in coalition government's first year. The public sector has had to find £10bn in savings from services such as GP care, prisons and the rail network,an analysis by the Guardian shows.

]]> A desperate appeal for the bereavment charity for children, Noah's Ark Trust has failed, leaving 14 staff out of work and 900 children without the support network. The Keep Noah's Ark Afloat Appeal aimed to keep the charity above water until January 2012 by which time, it said, a restructure would have taken place and expenditure dramatically reduced.

]]> A funding lifeline of at least £50 million to support hundreds of vital Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) projects and services is being announced today by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG). The full impact on the VCS of cutbacks is still to come according to NCVO who estimate that voluntary and community groups will face a reduction in public funding of over £900 million by 2016, losing a total of £2.8 billion in that period.

 

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