Austerity or Class War?

[DanaC]

Alongside all the changes to benefits and tax credits are largescale cuts and changes in funding models for local councils. More and more is being put under the remit of local councils (they will now directly administer and fund council tax benefits for example - meaning some councils will have to reduce those benefits. Suddenly people who were totally exempt will find themselves partially exempt, with a 'small' contribution to pay out of their increasingly low benefits).

So, the councils are being expected to cover more resopnsibilities and areas of provision, with the central element of their funding slashed, under orders from central government to find upwards of 20% budget cuts and also under massive central pressure (under pain of losing elements of funding) to reduce the council tax burden on its residents. So...can't recoup lost funding by increasing tax.

The net result is that a lot of services and avenues of support are collapsing. At exactly the time when they are needed. A lot of the results of austerity are detrimental to our ability to grow our economy.

Here's one example of this:

Two out of three local authorities in England and Wales are failing to provide enough childcare to support parents who work, according to figures to be published this week.

For families with disabled children the picture is even bleaker, with only one in seven local authorities meeting their statutory duties to ensure they have enough childcare provision.

In the Childcare Costs Survey 2013, the newly merged charities the Daycare Trust and the Family and Parenting Institute say the situation is increasing pressure on already struggling families and preventing parents who want to work staying in their jobs.

The group said the failure by local authorities to meet their responsibilities under the 2006 Childcare Act – designed to encourage parents back into the workplace – was almost entirely due to funding shortages. Anand Shukla, chief executive of the organisation, said: "At a time when one in five children lives in poverty, the failure to provide this essential service for parents who want to provide for their families is a national scandal."

The figures show that only one in five local authorities in England reports having enough provision for parents with children under two and only one in seven – 14% – say there is enough care for disabled children. Research by the Department for Work and Pensions has shown that a third of parents who do not currently work say it is because of the unaffordability of childcare.

Childcare providers in many less wealthy areas rely on funding from local authorities and many point to the financial squeeze as exacerbating differences in quality and availability of care for parents in different areas across Britain. Childcare costs are already rising at above inflation rates while there have been deep cuts in tax credits and child benefit.

So...what's the solution? Well, you might think directing some funding towards childcare for low income families might be an excellent start. Thankfully, we have very clever men and women writing these policies and theyhave the solution: allow childminders to look after more children per adult. Bear in mind these are mainly pre-kindergarten infants.

Amid much controversy, the government has indicated it plans to reduce the adult-to-child ratios to ease the pressure on nurseries, child-minders and after-school clubs, but the Daycare Trust and the Family and Parenting Institute argues that there will be little or no impact on costs for parents.

"Staffing costs are just one part of a complex picture, so allowing adults to look after more children at once is not only a risky idea but doesn't seem to provide any cost savings," Shukla said. "With private and non-profit childcare providers struggling, I doubt whether parents will ever see any of the money saved by increasing the numbers of children per staff member."

And here's the clincher, here's how the central government gets away with it:

The Childcare Act 2006 obliges all English and Welsh local authorities to ensure there is enough childcare for working parents and those undertaking training and education with a view to returning to work.

Really? That's their responsibility? How are they supposed to pay for that, with fucking monopoly money?

If it's truly all about local needs and local responsibility, then free up the local councils to raise the money through other means. No, though, we don't do that. All the responsibility and budgeting is local, and all the funding models, ringfences and constraints applied from the centre. More and more gets loaded onto councils and then they are lambasted if they raise tax by more than 1 per cent.

They are breaking councils and then blaming them for being broken.

Not just this government. The Labour government was shoddy on local councils. And back further too. The power devolves to the centre as the responsibility settles on local councils. It's the same with everything at a local level. Under Thatcher, local authorities were required to allow and facilitate people to buy their council houses whilst also banning them from using any o fthat money to build new stock. And then when councils started to experience serious housing problems they got the blame, and they were pushed into handing over control of the housing stock to third party arms length housing associations. Not for profit, but you should see the golden handshakes and hellos. The council is still ultimately responsible for the housing situation though. Thye're the ones with the legal responsibilities.

Even schools. They used to be controlled by local authorities. Now local authorities have to commission education provision. They have no real power in this: there are strict rules over which tender mjst be accepted in a given circumstance and in the event of a decision not being made or being challenged, it goes to the Sec of State to decide. They have very little power once the school is set up and running.

But they are held responsible for the performance of all those schools. In ways that impact on funding. Only if a school has had to go into special measures through utter failure do councils really get any sway and by then it's crisis time and the damage has been done.

It's all sold to us on the grounds of localism. Schools 'freed up' from council control (nowadays controlled by whoever wants to put the money in) and council tax benefits locally decided to take account of specific local needs. But all of it, all of it, makes the whole less accountable to local voters. If the council is genuinely responsible for all of these things, down to funding and management decisions then failure results in councillors losing their seats. Success means them keeping their seats.

Unfortunately that also gives local councils a lot of power and, historically, the capacity to stand up to central government when its policies were highly unpopular and detrimental locally. And that is something successive governments have sought to limit.