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JRF Report - Spending cuts hit poorer residents and areas hardest

The report of a three-year study commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation provides the most up-to-date national picture of the scale, nature and distribution of the cuts to council budgets currently available. It also uses evidence collected in four case study councils - Coventry, Milton Keynes, Newcastle upon Tyne and Renfrewshire - to assess the impacts.

Cuts were found to be having a profound effect, with the poorest communities and residents being hardest hit. Moreover, long-term preventative work appears to be being compromised by the need to make short term savings.

Read the report and policy recommendations via the JRF website

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Thanks for posting this. The JRF report comments "...frontline staff within local authorities are working very hard to cushion service-users from the worst impacts of the cuts, principally by taking on expanded workloads. The level of stress this entails does not appear sustainable.." highlights the valiant efforts across public services to protect local communities despite of difficult economic circumstances. A personal view is I wonder if enough is being done to recognise this and if we need to do more to protect the health and wellbeing of the staff involved?