Council’s cash crisis over safeguarding

A TROUBLED council last night held a crisis meeting over concerns it will not be able to pay for services for vulnerable children and adults.

Councillors at Northamptonshire county council face having to make cuts to save £70million by next March.

Matthew Golby, the council leader, proposed that services be cut back to a “core offer”, as he warned they face having to decide “what we can realistically provide and how we can help to create resilience in places where the Council can no longer step in”.

Mr Golby said, in a discussion paper published ahead of the meeting, that the offer would “safeguard all children and young people” while ensuring a “robust safeguarding system to protect vulnerable adults”.

Government-appointed commissioners were sent in to run the authority earlier this year after it issued a Section 114 notice, restricting its own spending in an attempt to balance the books.