The Story of Lily and Muhammed
Ahead of the Autumn Statement, Polly Lord examines the potential human impact of cuts to our public services.
The fiscal event tomorrow, coming with a backdrop of councils warning bankruptcy amid dire budgetary balances, promises to place the delivery of local public services under further strain following a succession of crises building on a decade of austerity.
It also means that councils of all tiers will be forced into making difficult decisions.
Councils have various roles and are responsible for designing and delivering a range of statutory and non-statutory services. In the past decade of austerity, councils have sought to deliver their statutory functions whilst prioritising the key non-statutory services they can provide in line with their local area’s wants and needs.
Even ahead of tomorrow’s announcement, councils will inevitably need to make further trade-offs. Put simply, they are going to have to choose what (if any) services they provide other than the ones they are required by law to deliver. And then, they will need to be creative with how to meet their minimum legal responsibilities.
…councils provide the services that knit our daily lives together.
There are processes, systems, and bureaucratic controls that can be streamlined within councils, like any organisations. But the most bureaucratic (and most costly) controls are often imposed by various central government’s departments and either way, seeking efficiencies in this area will not plug the £2.4 billion shortfall which currently exists.
What does it actually mean?
These big numbers and broad phrases hide the potential impact on people and our communities. Talking in “billions” and “local public services” are a catch-all for multiple services we use and rely on, both on a daily basis and in a time of crisis.
Cuts to our local public services impact us all. To bring to life the impact of these cuts on communities, we want to introduce you to Lily and Muhammad. They earn the average salary and live in an average house in an average town. They have two children – one at school, one under school age. They could be any members of our communities. This is their story.
The story of Lily and Muhammed
Muhammad leaves early for work, to find the families’ bins haven’t been collected. Rubbish is strewn all over the floor and the seagulls are moving chip wrappers around their local park. At least he thinks they’re seagulls – since the council couldn’t afford the streetlights any more, at that time in the morning it’s hard to make out.
Lily gets the children into the car and drives the 10 miles across the town to drop her 3-year-old off at her childcare supplier. It’s the closest one to her house since the financial support was withdrawn. She then drives back in the opposite direction to drop her eldest off at school. He used to get the school bus, but the council had to stop supplying travel to school. Her car is rattling – she still hasn’t repaired the damage after hitting a pothole last month.
Lily works for 6 hours, with no lunch break (she works reduced hours now due to the lack of childminding available). She used to take her children for swimming lessons after school, but the leisure centre closed some months ago. She suggests a visit to the local library instead but gets there to find that too is closed in the afternoons. Adding insult to injury, she gets a parking ticket from the private company enforcing the no parking rules outside the closed premises.
Lots of the local facilities her children used to enjoy – the museum, the little gallery, have closed in recent years. Even the park closes early now.
Back at home, Lily’s husband Muhammad is extremely stressed. A few weeks ago he discovered that his parents’ care home is having to close as the local authority can only manage one home in the area. They’ve found spaces for Muhammad’s parents – in different care homes. Meaning they will be split up for the first time in 50 years.
On days like these, Lily might suggest they get chips for tea, but lately the children refuse. They haven’t forgotten the incident when the eldest came down with salmonella. Since trading standards stopped coming round, the takeaway hadn’t bothered keeping up to speed with standards…
The events affecting Lily and Muhammed may have been exaggerated for effect, but there will be stories like this up and down your street, your neighbourhood, and your area. Cuts to local public services’ funding forces councils to choose which local public services to cut.
This matters to people
People sometimes wonder what councils do, or they see specific issues such as education or adult social care and think that it does not impact on them. But councils provide the services that knit our daily lives together. They are there to clean and light our streets, to develop our local areas, to provide us with childcare, transport, leisure and culture, and to support us when – or stop us from – getting sick.
Cuts to councils are not just potential redundancies or reduced bureaucracy. Cuts to councils – the “fat to be trimmed” – are these services that local government provides. And, as a result, these cuts legitimise a significant ideological shift away from state-supplied services.
Maybe that’s the right path? Shifting from state-imposed to community-powered public services is our aim. But that’s not what’s being promised. Tomorrow’s announcement will undermine the financial support of services, without providing the powers to creatively re-imagine service design and delivery. It’s a move from state-led to market-led, at a time when people have less money to pay for said services and when the market’s volatility has been most evidenced.
Behind the big numbers, ideological comments, and broad phrases though – we need to remember that this stuff matters…to all of us throughout our communities.
It is also a stretch of the Government’s mandate, being hung from the framework of levelling up but conveniently forgetting the manifesto’s pledges:
‘We will ensure that councils continue to deliver essential local services…This is an agenda which shows that the days of Whitehall knows best are over. We will give towns, cities and communities of all sizes across the UK real power and real investment to drive the growth of the future and unleash their full potential.’
Behind the big numbers, ideological comments, and broad phrases though – we need to remember that this stuff matters. This matters to Lily, to Muhammad, and all of us throughout our communities.
Photo by Nick Page on Unsplash.
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