In this age of austerity we are all having to tighten our belts and make tough decisions about what we spend our money on. Local authorities are no exception and it’s clear that many are struggling with the need to slash their budgets while still maintaining decent levels of front line services.

I read with interest an article last month in the Guardian in which Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle city council spoke candidly about the challenges facing his administration. He spoke about the ‘glowing embers of unrest’ brought on by enforced cuts to front line services.

No doubt the recent announcement by the local government minister Kris Hopkins that councils will face cuts to their central funding of up to 6.4% will bring this issue into even sharper focus as we move into a new year.

There are clearly intense debates about the nature of the cuts imposed on councils by Whitehall going on. These will likely intensify in the run up to next year’s election and I imagine continue afterwards as the reality of making them happen is grappled with across the UK.

Austerity is here for the foreseeable future; that is the cold hard fact. This means there are inevitably going to be difficult and potentially unpopular decisions to be made.

In such challenging times it is vital that local authorities work both with each other and the voluntary sector to ensure the most vulnerable in our society are always protected.

One group of particularly vulnerable individuals are children leaving the care system. Earlier this month Barnardo’s released research which indicated that children leaving the care system are effectively being ‘set up to fail’ when making the transition to independent living.

The reality is that young people with no means of supporting themselves can be forced to move from the place they call home because their benefits will no longer cover the cost. This situation can be incredibly disruptive to the young person both practically and emotionally.

Our view is that children’s and housing services in local authorities should work much more closely together to tackle this, going so far as to share budgets when commissioning housing support for care leavers. We are encouraging them to jointly commission services to help smooth the transition to independence for care leavers.

Our report also revealed that lack of contingency planning offered by local authority departments was having a detrimental impact on costs to the public purse, with some not offering help to young people at the earliest opportunity. This can result in care leavers continuing on a downward spiral and incurring greater costs to the state in the long-run, due to the level of support needed.

For example, one young woman leaving care who was interviewed for the report’s research is estimated to have accrued over £17,000 in Government costs over a period of 10 months. This was in a large part due to the instability and sheer number of temporary accommodation placements she received.

In order to improve the long-term outlook for these young people, more emphasis needs to be placed on helping them to live alone successfully by choosing to jointly invest on preventing harm to this vulnerable group. Young people leaving care are just one example of where resources must be pooled and prioritised. A key guiding principle when budgets are squeezed to the pips must be that those children and families who are most at risk still receive the services they need.

As the UK’s leading children’s charity Barnardo’s already works closely with many local authorities to ensure some of the most vulnerable children in our society are supported. Going into 2015, Barnardo’s will continue to play an active role in working in partnership with others to ensure that in this age of austerity, vital front line services are provided to help transform the lives of those who need our help the most.

* Two years ago a specialist team was announced in a ground-breaking move to tackle the growing menace of child sexual exploitation in the Bradford district.

Experts in the police, social services, the NSPCC and Barnardo's Turn Around Project joined together at a new base at Javelin House police station in Eccleshill, Bradford.

Over the previous 14 months, agencies involved in dealing with child exploitation in Bradford saw 100 young people ranging in ages from 12 to 19, some of whom were boys, according to analysis by Bradford Safeguarding Children Board.

Not all the children and young people had been sexually abused but were identified as being at risk and needing services to reduce the risk of harm. A smaller number who had been victims of abuse were receiving help to become safe and get the health and education services they required.

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