Leaked emails from Manchester Council illustrate the hostility of local labour councils to campaigners fighting to defend vital services.
29/03/11: PRESS RELEASE
Council tried to block out parents campaigning to protect Sure Start centres
Spin doctors at Manchester City Council ordered members of staff to block out parents campaigning against the closure of Sure Start centres in the city, according to a leaked email.
The document, seen by independent local publication Manchester Mule, refers to the Save Manchester Sure Start Campaign, a network which brings together parents’ campaign groups from centres across the city. Sent out by the Communications Manager of Children’s Services Yvette Cox on March 15, it instructs employees on how to “manage parent communication sessions so that they won’t be hijacked by this group”.
In addition to “managing” the sessions, the document instructs staff “not to respond to the group directly” and warns not to “provide the group with any information.”
Meetings between parents and Sir Richard Leese, leader of the council, to discuss the cuts were subsequently arranged for each of the city’s 36 children’s centres following a vigorous campaign organised to protect Manchester’s Sure Start Service against severe cuts.
Under the council’s budget plans, passed two weeks ago, cuts are to be made to a quarter of the city’s children’s services. Sure Start centres providing day care, health and family support and early education for pre-school children are to be wholly outsourced to be run by schools, voluntary groups and, campaigners fear, private companies.
The tendering process is anticipated to be rolled out over two stages over the next 12 months and it is currently unclear who will run the centres. Executive for children’s services Councillor Sheila Newman stated in a letter to parents that “it is inaccurate and misleading to say that decisions have been taken to close services or offer the services to a big private provider.”
The cuts come as part of a national attack on Sure Start by the coalition government, with a Parliamentary question tabled by Labour shadow education secretary Andy Burnham revealing that the service is to lose an average of 23 per cent of its funds. In Manchester £8 million has been lost from the Early Intervention Grant, which pays for the centres in addition to support for disabled children, community groups and guidance and support for young people.
Manchester City Council have so far failed to respond to enquiries about the content of the leaked email.
See article at Manchester Mule for further information
