Hampshire's budget axe threatens voluntary sector services.

An Alliance of children's and young peoples voluntary sector organisations say that "Hampshire's across the board cuts in grant funding and drastic reductions in subsidies for the use of school facilities threaten the future of many valuable community services provided by the voluntary sector"

They are also alarmed that these cuts are being proposed without proper consultation with the sector- against the spirit of working arrangements only recently put in place.

Local press quickly picked up on proposed cuts in the Children's Services funding which threatened Stubbington Study Centre. In response Leader of the County Council, Cllr Ken Thornber found an extra £95,000 to give the Centre a year's reprieve.

Other services seem unlikely to be bailed out in the same way - these cuts are expected to have a direct impact upon voluntary and community organisations:

• Duke of Edinburgh's Awards programme cut of £60,000 from the LEA budget
• cuts to the LEA funded grant programme for VCS youth organisations: £20,000 of total £200,000 (10%)
• cuts to social care VCS grants budget of £20,000 of current total £200,000 (10%)
• removal of subsidies worth £265,000 for VCS use of school facilities from the Community Education budget

And this is unlikely to be the end of the bad news for voluntary organisations.

• The County budget report warns the wind down of the Children's Fund means that "hard decisions will have to be made about the discontinuation of a range of projects" . Many of these projects are delivered by voluntary organisations.
• Children's Services are making a contribution of over £500,000 towards Hants Direct, the County's new contact centre: this contribution will rise to over £1.3m in 2008-09 when the service is fully implemented. Does this mean less money potentially available for the VCS?

Responding to the proposals, Cedric Riley, CEO of Hampshire Council for Voluntary Youth Service (HCVYS), and Chairman of the Hampshire Children and Young People's VCS Alliance, has written to Cllr Thornber asking for decisions to be put on hold pending discussion with the sector. On behalf of the Alliance and HCVYS members, Cedric outlined concerns that the budget proposals seem to have been drafted without consultation.

No response to Cedric Riley's letter had been received, but the Alliance hope that some dialogue with the sector will have commenced before final recommendations are made to the County Council on the 21 February.