Rotherham Council has pledged to do more to protect children and young people in the town in its forthcoming budget.
Commitments follow the resignation of the council's leader and commitments from its entire cabinet to step down after an investigation into local child sexual exploitation found the town hall was ‘not fit for purpose’.
Rotherham said it was now in the fifth consecutive year of cuts brought about by the Government’s programme of austerity, totalling £116.9m since 2010, but had 'listened to residents about what their priorities are when faced with difficult choices’.
The council said it has sought to minimise the impact on front line services whererver possible in its 2015/16 budget. Proposed cuts include:
- Cutting the cost of councillors by more than £200,000 by reducing allowances and removal of the leader’s car
- Stopping the Imagination Library scheme to save £400,000 over two years
- Reduction in funding to City Learning Centres to save £200,000
- Reducing the number of council-owned buildings to save £180,000
The council said it would refocus the budget 'around what matters to local residents'. This would include putting extra money into children’s services, investing in extra street cleansing and resurfacing roads.
The additional money in children’s services and street cleansing will be partly funded by a 1.95% increase in council tax which equates to 31p per week for a typical Band A property.
Resources were put in place to ensure children’s services ‘meet the standards expected and that the failings to the victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation can be put right’, a council statement said.
The children’s safeguarding budget will be ring-fenced and an additional £824,000 invested into children’s services budgets.
Earlier this month, Government troubleshooter Louise Casey’s review concluded the borough was continuing to ‘take more care of its reputation than it has of its most needy’, uncovering a historic culture of denial and bullying alongside serious and on-going safeguarding failures.
A previous report by Professor Alexis Jay’s report into child sexual abuse in the region estimated at least 1,400 girls were sexually abused between 1997 and 2013.
