The Government cannot keep trying to protect Bradford’s children on the cheap.

Over the last week, we have seen worrying reports of the budget gap that is facing Bradford Council, but the disturbing reality is that this is not a challenge which is unique to Bradford.

Indeed, after more than a decade of harsh austerity cuts and senseless ideological underfunding of local government in town halls up and down the country by Ministers in central government who are set on centralising whatever powers that they can in Whitehall, there is no escaping that councils of all sizes and all political colours have been forced to the financial brink.

Many have even been pushed over this brink, unable to reconcile the dwindling funding that they receive from the Government with soaring local demand created by this decade of austerity.

Whilst Bradford is not quite in that place, the council have been forced to find £350 million in cuts and savings since 2011, and the size of the financial gap in one of the UK’s largest local authorities should nevertheless set alarm bells ringing in the office of Michael Gove as he decides whether to press his colleagues around the cabinet table for a funding settlement that restores stability for council finances.

If he does not press for this improved settlement, then there will be huge and devastating consequences for a whole range of vital services across the Bradford District that are funded by Bradford Council, and which so many local people, particularly those who are most vulnerable, depend on.

Yet whilst this is of great concern, what worries me the most is the impact that any serious funding gap facing Bradford Council will have on Children’s Services, because it is here where the impact of the budget shortfall will be most pronounced and cause the greatest damage, which is why the Government urgently need to step in with proper funding before it it’s too late.

As all those across Bradford will know, following a succession of reports detailing the inadequate performance of Children’s Services and a series of scandals, action was rightly taken and the Government instructed a newly created and independent Bradford Children’s Trust to assume control of Children’s Services, with responsibility for improving outcomes for vulnerable children across the District placed in the hands of Ministers.

Yet for all the benefits that putting Children’s Services under an independent Trust and an experienced Chief Executive trusted by Ministers, Bradford Council and others across the District, the fact is that an underfunded and financially hamstrung Children’s Trust will not be able to overcome the problems that faced Children’s Services in the past, and the drastic improvements that we need to see won’t be realised.

Creating a new Trust, recruiting new and retaining existing staff, and coping with dramatically increased caseloads after all does not come cheap, and whilst it will reap benefits for Bradford and the children who live here in the long run, it has placed further pressures on already stretched local budgets.

Bradford Council already devotes more than £3 in every £4 of its annual budget to adult and children’s services, with spending doubling in the ten years to 2022/23, but experienced social workers are already hard to come by, and they are even harder to recruit when salaries do not come close to matching those offered elsewhere.

So how can Ministers even expect them to deliver improvements if the Trust’s directors, managers and staff are forced to try and deliver miracles on a shoestring budget?

When the Government took control of Children’s Services in Bradford through the new Trust, they promised that they would do whatever it takes to protect children across the District, but if they do not act to fill the huge budget gap facing Children’s Services, this promise will remain unfulfilled.

So the Department for Education and the Treasury need to stop talking and start doing, and with less than three weeks to go until he delivers his Autumn Statement in Parliament, the Chancellor needs to make a cast iron commitment now that the Government will do whatever it takes to protect children across the District.

So when Parliament returns on Monday, I will be urging Ministers and the Chancellor to stop putting a price on the safety and the wellbeing of our children, and commit to providing the funding that Bradford Council needs to not only keep Children’s Services running, but to deliver the improvements that children deserve.