Cuts of more than £800,000 cuts to contracts operated by charities in Bath and North East Somerset will create “huge anxiety” for the sector, a membership body has warned.

Bath and North East Somerset Council announced it would cut its community support contracts with charities to provide services in a push to save money. 

The Liberal Democrat-run council agreed to make the cuts this February following a consultation that will result in a £400,000 cut in 2024/25 and a £402,000 cut in 2025/26.

At a council cabinet meeting earlier this month, Robin Moss, Labour councillor for Bath and North East Somerset, asked about the progress of a cost-cutting review and consultation discussions with the not-for-profit sector. 

Paul May, cabinet member for children’s services, and Alison Born, cabinet member for adult services, said the council had contacted not-for-profit organisations that are delivering community support contracts to identify opportunities for savings. 

“Following an engagement event the council set up a dedicated email for community providers to raise any further enquiries,” the councillors said. 

“There are two further engagement sessions planned with the sector in September and October. 

“All ideas and opportunities for savings delivery and contract efficiencies identified by community support providers will be considered and will inform commissioning plans for 2025/26.”

May and Born said a sector training event was led by 3SG in August and the council lead for procurement to update charities on procurement law and explain the bidding process.

“In November there is a planned joint training with commissioners and the sector to look at models of commissioning,” the councillors said.

“The executive director for operations meets regularly with the director of 3SG, Becky Brooks, to ensure that the sector is engaged in the process. 

“During this consultation it has been agreed to maintain the current level of funding to the sector to ensure service continuity and to look for one-off savings from other social care service areas.”

Brooks – director at 3SG, a membership body that represents more than 230 charities in the Bath and North East Somerset area – said at the meeting that charities were “largely in the dark” about timelines and had “little interaction in terms of collaboration or consultation”.

She said: “The sector still doesn’t know what cuts are coming and where – and this has created huge anxiety, uncertainty and difficulty in making plans for the future. 

“We are yet to see the outcomes of the community services review, despite having asked for it over several months – this is disappointing, because it would be helpful to know where cuts will fall, and to understand the council’s thinking. 

“We hoped there would be an open dialogue around this piece of work, and as far as I am aware, this has not been the case, as was promised at the beginning of this year. 

“If this review is in another format, which I have been told that it is, we would still like to see it, where commercial sensitivities allow.”

Brooks said, while she understood the council had been busy with other matters, the third sector “desperately needs” the council to start communicating more effectively.

Responding to Brooks’ statement, councillor Born said the council valued third sector providers and recognised that they provided excellent services.

“However we are faced with the need to make some difficult savings while getting the best possible outcomes with the funding we have available,” said Born.

The management of community services contracts has returned to the council from HCRG after seven years and Born said it was essential for the council to deepen its understanding of the context and scale of a “complicated marketplace”.

Born said: “As a result we have had to undertake a very complex piece of commissioning work, very quickly, to be clear about the many existing contracts with more than 40 providers.

“We flagged up that the work would initially start off as an internal review before further engagement around the options we would need to consider and senior officers have been updating 3SG since then.

“Perhaps what we didn’t make so clear was the fact that it has taken us longer than we had hoped to complete this first phase.”