SWINGEING cuts to children’s services could see as many as 400 people lose their jobs, a trade union has said.

Council bosses last week warned that up to 240 full-time-equivalent posts - around half of its ‘prevention and early help’ team - were at risk in a shake-up designed to save £13m by 2020.

But Unite spokesman Neil Terry told a meeting of the Council’s Executive that many of the affected staff worked part-time, meaning the number of people affected would be far higher.

He said: “It’s up to 400 staff who are going to face the consequences of that.”

The shake-up would affect children’s centres, pre-school services and parenting support, among other areas.

Although a Council report says no children’s centres are earmarked for closure “at this stage”, staffing would be reduced and eight centres would be downgraded to ‘outreach’ bases, offering reduced services and opening hours.

These are Hirst Wood in Shipley, Highfield in Keighley, Parkland in Thorpe Edge, Farcliffe and Lilycroft in Manningham, Princeville in Lidget Green, Bierley, Tyersal and Wyke.

The report says a remodelling of services would “cut out duplication and silos” by setting up four new teams across the district and ensuring families only had to deal with one point of contact.

But Robin Naylor, chairman of governors at St Edmund’s Nursery School and Children’s Centre in Girlington, which leads the Bradford West cluster of children’s centres, warned that the move was a bad idea.

He said: “We fully appreciate the budgetary cuts that are in place and we realise they are unavoidable, so our position is we want the best way to handle these cuts.

“So we are not approaching this with a blindfold on, however we have some major concerns about these proposals being put forward.”

He said keeping open all children’s centres while cutting staff to that extent was “not a proposal that’s grounded in reality”.

Councillor Dale Smith (Con, Wharfedale) also sought reassurances that the children’s centre for Menston and Burley was safe.

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of the Council, said the proposals would be going out to public consultation and they welcomed anyone’s thoughts on how they might make the savings.

She said: “None of us want to scale it back to this level but of course when we don’t have the money, we can’t spend it.”

The Executive voted to send the plans out for consultation.

After the meeting, Councillor David Ward (Ind, Bolton and Undercliffe), children’s spokesman for the Liberal Democrat and Independent group, said they would be starting their own campaign to raise awareness of the proposals and try to secure a re-think.

He said they also wanted clarification about where the jobs would be cut.

He said: “There’s nothing in the report about where these jobs are going to be lost at all.”

The consultation will run from November 15 to February 12 before a final decision is taken later next year.