Cutting Services -- Legally and Safely?

Careful before you cut?

A public authority should always remember that if it cuts its services then real people will in some way suffer from those decisions, in a significant number of ways. Finance officers sometimes only focus on the financial cuts targets they have to meet, not the human factor in the equation. Often the following questions should be asked; Does the cut in services need to be made? Who might be most affected by the cut? Has the cut been decided in a fair, rational and transparent way? Has the impact on society,especially the weakest, been mitigated as far as possible? What other alternatives have been considered to achieve the cuts target and why have they been discounted? Will this approach be equitable; that is not discriminating for or against different groups within society?

Difficult decisions need to be made but cuts are often reduced to a pure technical exercise,this is wholly wrong in my view. Birmingham City Council has recently changed its eligibility criteria for social care funding to only those who have "critical" needs, the previous policy was based on those with "substantial" needs. A recent court judgement has found Birmingham's approach to be illegal in this instance. The Council was judged not to have properly consulted on the changes with the wider community, nor did it adequately examine the impact of these changes on the weakest in society.

The lesson for us all is that even in difficult economic times we should not lose sight of examining the consequences of our actions in terms of budget reductions.