BRADFORD Council is to consult on the future of 41 buildings which it uses to provide prevention and early help services for children and families.

A report gives detailed proposals on which sites would be continued to be used, which new sites could be used, and which sites may no longer be used.

FULL LIST: The 41 children's centres under review  

The review of its buildings comes as the Council prepares to make further cuts to its budget as part of continuing austerity.

Councillor Imran Khan, portfolio holder for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “The thing that came through from a previous consultation is that people wanted us to concentrate on people and services as opposed to buildings.

“Children’s centres are a fantastic resource but the buildings are not being used as best they could.

“This is about going out to where people are.”

He said a lot of centres were put in school buildings and the schools now need those spaces back.

Children’s centre services are now delivered through Family Hubs which operate in four areas of the district: Bradford South, Bradford West, Bradford East, and Keighley and Shipley.

The changes would lead to a number of delivery sites offering a minimum of eight hours of prevention and early help services each week and a number of additional community-based venues identified to meet local need.

“We’re not talking about cutting services, what we’re trying to do is get the best use out of what we’ve got.

“The purpose of this consultation is to listen carefully to communities and our voluntary sector so we can find out how to use the locations we have in the best way possible.”

Cllr Khan added: “Most local authorities up and down the country have already closed their children’s centres mainly down to a lack of funding.

“Bradford actually has probably kept children’s centres going longer than most local authorities.

“Government cuts mean that the Council’s budgets are under huge pressure so we need to make sure we use every penny in the best way we can.”

Bradford is one of the northern cities that have been particularly affected by real-terms local government funding cuts according to a report from Centre for Cities.

Cities have borne nearly three-quarters (74%) of all real-terms local government funding cuts in the last decade despite being home to just 54% of the population, according to Centre for Cities’ annual Cities Outlook 2019 report – the Centre’s annual health check on UK city economies. This is equivalent to a reduction of £386 per city dweller since 2009/10, compared to £172 per person living elsewhere.

Cities Outlook 2019 also reveals a clear geographical divide in where cuts to cities have fallen, with the top five worst affected cities all located in the north of England. Barnsley is the city that has been hardest hit by austerity in percentage terms, with a 40% reduction in its day-to-day council spending since 2009/10 while Bradford has seen a 16.2% cut.

Cities in the north of England on average saw their spending cut by 20% compared to 9% for those cities in the South West, East of England and South East, excluding London.

The report says that the cities least equipped to absorb the loss of central government grant have been hardest hit. Cities in the North tend to have weaker economies and are more reliant on central government funding. Therefore, they are less able to raise money locally, for example through council tax increases.

Bradford Council leader Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe said: “This report confirms what we all instinctively knew which is that the North has borne the brunt of government cuts, putting huge pressure on our budgets for vital services such as those for vulnerable children and adults.

"Our funding from government has nose-dived at a time when the demand for our services has increased. As we head towards a full decade of government austerity we urge the government to end its unfair cuts once and for all. Fair and proper investment would enable our district to fulfil its great potential and this would in turn benefit the country as a whole.”

The growing demand for social care has added to the squeeze on cities’ finances. A decade ago, just four cities out of the 62 spent the majority of their budget on social care, now half of them do. Bradford’s spending on social care has risen by 5.5% since 2009/10.

The report says if this pattern continues, the only role for many councils will be to provide social care.

It also says that Bradford’s employment rate for July 2017 to June 2018 is the sixth worst in the country at 68.1% compared to the UK average of 74.9% and the third highest percentage of people with no formal qualifications at 13.1% but the city comes in the top six for private sector jobs growth with a 4.7% increase between 2016 and 2017, amounting to 6,500 created.