Southwark Lib Dems Blast Labour for Persisting with Cuts to Vulnerable

Southwark Liberal Democrats lambasted Labour on Wednesday for deciding to continue with budgets cuts to services for the vulnerable.

Labour’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a 2022-2023 budget that included several items cutting or making savings to special educational needs (SEND) and early years services.

One service, the Early Years Autism Support service, works with pre-school children to support their development socially or to help their families understand their diagnosis.

A Southwark council strategy notes that early intervention reduces the need for crisis support to families with children with autism.

The authority’s own equality reports on the budget also state that most of these savings are likely to have negative impacts on residents unless it finds alternative funding.

Director of Children’s and Adults Services David Quirke-Thornton stressed at an Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) meeting last week that these services were still important, but that the council could no longer afford to fund it.

After this OSC meeting, Liberal Democrat members used the committee’s powers to force Labour to reconsider these cuts by finding money from its own finances to reverse them.

Commenting, Cllr Hamish McCallum, Southwark Liberal Democrat Group Leader said:

“These budget savings are an absolutely heartless decision from a Labour administration that pretends to care about a ‘Fairer Future’ for all. Instead, Labour are putting critical services for vulnerable people at risk. These services support some of our most vulnerable residents at the most sensitive stages of their development. We believe that money must be allocated to safeguard these services.”