THE leader of Southampton City Council has written to the Chancellor urging him to spare social care in the city from the "knife" of further cuts.

As previously reported, Labour boss Simon Letts has written to George Osborne to voice concerns about the impact further cuts could have on the city's ability to look after vulnerable children and adults.

And he has challenged Mr Osborne to send his "best civil servants" to the city to find further savings without cutting services if he thinks the council is "inefficient".

Ahead of today's comprehensive spending review announcement, Cllr Letts says "all of the fat has gone" and says the number of children being looked after by the council has risen by 100 per cent in the last five years.

Civic chiefs say they face having to make £90m of cuts over the next four years and 180 jobs could go next year alone in the authority's next budget.

It was agreed at last week's full council meeting that Cllr Letts would write to Mr Osborne and the Daily Echo can now reveal the content of his letter.

During the meeting the Conservative opposition said Labour were "hypocrites" as the Tories were only "fixing the mess Labour created" in Government before 2010.

In it, he says: "In the new parliament with all the fat gone and rising demand for many of our services we request that before you wield the knife again you reflect on some of the consequences of further substantial budget reductions."

Cllr Letts says the council now looks after more than 500 young people "who have been let down by their families and the first call on our resources must be to keep these children safe at an average cost of £34,000 per annum per child".

He also says the council is spending more and more money looking after vulnerable elderly residents and is working with local NHS organisations, but that further social care cuts would put further pressure on their budgets as well.

He continues: "There is considerable evidence which I assume you are aware off that cuts in Social care put extra revenue pressure on the NHS. It actually costs money to the overall public purse to cut services that prevent children coming into care and to support older people to live safety in the family home."

Daily Echo: Simon Letts

Referring to Hampshire County Council, Cllr Letts says the Government is "rewarding councils with big rewards yet punishing those with small ones", and adds that "my challenge to you is that if you think we are inefficient then you dispatch your best civil servants to Southampton so they can tell us how to find further savings without cutting services.

Conservative Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith has also written to the Government about the in-year public health budget cuts, asking that they "strongly reconsider" the 6.2 per cent cuts as they could be "detrimental" to its objectives of tackling health inequality.

Tory council opposition leader Jeremy Moulton said at the meeting that he did not think the in-year cuts were "right".

You can read the full letter below:

Dear Mr Osborne,
                               Following a resolution of Southampton City Council passed on Wednesday November the 18th I am writing as the Leader of the Council to express our concerns in relation to the upcoming spending review.

                                In 2010 local government which was acknowledged at the time by David Cameron as the most efficient part of the public sector knew that it had a part to play in cutting expenditure and over the course of the last parliament we saw budget cuts of over 40% in our grant allocation. In the new parliament with all the fat gone and rising demand for many of our services we request that before you wield the knife again you reflect on some of the consequences of further substantial budget reductions.

                              Firstly some of the facts about Southampton. In the last parliament the number of looked after children in our area rose by a hundred percent the Council is now responsible for well over 500 young people who have been let down by their families and the first call on our resources must be to keep these children safe at an average cost of £34,000 per annum per child. We are also having to spend greater resource on supporting the frail elderly and work with our NHS partners to make sure that they are safe.

We were recently praised by the local NHS for the work that the councils teams do in keeping delayed discharges down to a minimum but the estimated cost of this to the acute hospital is still £5.5 million pounds a year. There is considerable evidence which I assume you are aware off that cuts in Social care put extra revenue pressure on the NHS. It actually costs money to the overall public purse to cut services that prevent children coming into care and to support older people to live safety in the family home.  

                               I know you have been written to by Cllr Royston Smith now the Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen with regards to in year cuts in Public Health and I share his concerns that cuts in Public Health lead to extra costs in the wider Health budget. This is backed up by recent Kings Fund research that demonstrates the value in financial terms of effective public Health interventions. For many of these you save over £5 for every one pound you spend. 

                               I turn now to the question of reserves, in the city we work to minimum reserves and will use some of the limited reserves we have to cushion government cuts this year. I note however that generous settlements to County areas as opposed to urban areas have happened in recent years despite the fact that Hampshire County Council is sitting on over a third of a billion pounds of reserves. Which suggests that despite government rhetoric you reward Councils with big reserves yet punish those with small ones.

                               To summarise not only are cuts bad news for the individuals they effect but they fail in their own terms. Cutting Social Care and Public Health now will cost you more money later. Austerity in this area is counterproductive.

                                In your reply can you resist the temptation to suggest that this Council should find unmentioned efficiencies instead of making cuts? My challenge to you is that if you think we are inefficient then you dispatch your best civil servants to Southampton so they can tell us how to find further savings without cutting services.

                                Attached you will find a short paper from our Head of Social Care which sets out some of the detail of the Southampton situation.


Simon Letts,

Leader Southampton City Council