CHILDREN and people in care will suffer the least from Ealing Council’s £30.8m budget reduction, which is up for approval this Tuesday (Nov 29).

The borough will target back-office functions to maintain frontline services in an effort to hit the Government’s £85m budget reduction target.

Human resources and finance departments will be cut by up to 25%, while child and social care will suffer only 10% reductions over the next couple of years.

The latest streamlining measure follows the £42.5m in savings already made in the past 14 months.

“Our priority throughout has been to protect front-line services and the most vulnerable people in our community,” said Labour council leader Julian Bell.

The borough hopes to find an extra £1m to provide care for those in critical need.

Meanwhile, staff face the prospect of another 300 job cuts on top of the 400 made in the last year. Ealing says £2m has been saved by a reduction of senior management positions.

Conservative opposition leader David Millican argues that about 10% of savings are from management, while 70% comes from reducing services or increasing charges such as parking permits and fines.

“Residents deserve a budget which puts them first,” he said. “Labour needed to find £55m in savings but they are actually saving £85m.”

Of the extra £30m, he says £6m will be spent on new IT equipment while the new Southall car park costs £5m.