Cllr Adam Higgs (Con, Highters Heath), Shadow Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families, has written to Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families, Cllr Mick Brown (Lab, Gravelly Hill), demanding full transparency on the impact of budget cuts on child safeguarding. This follows an alarming admission from Cllr Brown in a recent interview, where he acknowledged the potential for children to die due to the council’s financial decisions.
Birmingham City Council is set to implement £148 million in budget cuts for 2025/26, with £39 million being taken from Children & Families services. Birmingham Children’s Trust faces a £17 million reduction this year, plus £8.2 million next year, creating a £25.2 million funding shortfall by 2027. These cuts raise serious concerns about the ability of local services to protect vulnerable children.
In his open letter, Cllr Higgs states:
I was concerned to hear you say, in an interview with ITV, that there was a potential for children to die as a result of the cuts your Administration is putting forward for approval. There is no more fundamental duty of a local authority than its role in safeguarding our city’s children. I am writing to request that you publish in full all risk management plans associated with your proposed cuts to show the potential impact of these cuts and what mitigations you are putting in place to keep our children safe.
I note in your interview that you said you 'think' that it is part of the responsibility of the Birmingham Safeguarding Partnership to make sure that there are operational protocols to minimise those potentials. Whilst this is undoubtedly true, I am sure you do not need me to remind you that it is in fact the responsibility of everyone to safeguard children, not least the Cabinet Member with statutory responsibility for that role, and all those elected members who will vote on any budget proposals that may impact the council’s ability to do so.
I look forward to seeing those risk management plans published in full ahead of the Council Budget meeting so that all councillors can make a fully informed decision and ensure we are doing our bit to keep every child in this city as safe as possible.
