PROPOSED cuts to early years provision for disabled children, education and school transport in Darlington were examined by a scrutiny committee today (Wednesday, April 20).

Darlington Borough Council is slashing many of the non-statutory (ie not required by legislation) services it currently provides in a bid to shave £12.5 million from its budget.

This leaves services such as support for disabled youngsters at risk as the authority tries to balance its books.

The council’s children and young people scrutiny committee heard that there are currently 32 children receiving support from the council’s Early Support Service.

But much of the provision is non-statutory and cutting it would save the council more than £60,000 per year.

The assistant director of adult social care Kevin Kelly said that it was a “quite straightforward” case of the council focusing on the services it must provide and considering what can be done about the rest.

Councillors asked whether the town’s voluntary sector could plug the gaps left by council services being withdrawn and whether external organisations were already duplicating the authority’s work.

Mr Kelly responded: “There is further work to be looked at in terms of the voluntary sector, and they could possibly fill gaps.

“I don’t think there is a duplication at the moment but there is definitely some mileage in looking at what other agencies can do.”

However, Mr Kelly warned against putting too much pressure on the voluntary sector and said striking the right balance was important with the key decisions the council has to make.

Further discussion centred on how the council can save money on school transport and within its education department.

But despite proposals already being put forward, the committee was warned that some were likely to change due to the government’s new White Paper for education.

One proposal is for the education department to cut its head of service roles and appoint a new director at a cost of about £80,000, a move described by one member as an “exorbitant” expense.

Rachel Kershaw, head of school and pupil support, was the last to address the meeting and described the ways the council is seeking to reduce expenditure on school transport.

She said it had saved about £150,000 through its tendering process and was currently in the process of phasing out some of its provision.

The school transport service costs the council more than £1 million per year and Cllr Malcolm Wright suggested setting reduction targets.

He said he did not want to belittle the provision, particularly for disabled children, but added that just a small reduction in its large budget could help pay for other services.

“We need to do a lot more in getting that (budget) down,” he said.

The scrutiny committee agreed to attend a special meeting on May 16 to further discuss their responses to the budget proposals.