Council praised by charity Scope for ‘coping’ with social services cuts

A charity has praised the council for protecting front-line social services in the face of a shrinking budget, but Merton’s leader has warned this could be about to change with more cuts to come.

Disabled persons’ charity Scope has ranked Merton Council as the best in London – and seventh best nationally – for “coping” with cuts made to social services, despite cutting funding by seven per cent last year.

But Councillor Stephen Alambritis said it would be difficult to further protect social services in next year’s budget in April 2012, which he confirmed is set to feature another £20m worth of spending cuts.

In an interview with the Wimbledon Guardian in June, Coun Alambritis singled out the cuts to social services as the most regrettable of the £24m cuts package the Labour-run council announced for this year in March.

Commenting on the report, he said: “This is good news for Merton and a testament to its voluntary sector and our volunteering community.

“Other councils could say to me, ‘yes Stephen you have done well but we took our tough decisions in year one’, whereas we [Merton] still have tough decisions to make in the second year and it’s going to be very challenging.”

The report published this week by Scope and left-wing think tank Demos, entitled ‘Coping With The Cuts’, uses a range of data to rank each council’s performance, such as level of cuts made, change in charges and eligibility for disability services.

Against these criteria, Merton Council ranks highest in London with a score of 68.8 out of 100, with neighbouring Lambeth (also run by Labour) ranking lowest with a score of 22.2 – the second worst in the country.