Lewisham’s voluntary sector will struggle to pick up the slack left by council cuts, a specialist says.

This comes as Lewisham Council announces proposals to cut £49k in funding for a children and young people post at Voluntary Action Lewisham – funding which has been in place for ten years.

The cut forms a raft of cost-cutting proposals as the council looks to slash £30m from its budget over the next two financial years.

Voluntary Action Lewisham supports around 250 smaller charities, the council’s Children and Young People Select Committee heard.

Among these charities are those which work to support children, young people and families.

Around 30 of these charities attend the children and young people forums, which focus on key priorities such as safeguarding children or making Lewisham a safer place, according to Lewisham Council documents.

But the voluntary sector is under increasing pressure while facing “cuts on cuts,” Voluntary Action Lewisham policy and communications officer Mark Drinkwater said.

“The voluntary sector is under a whole lot of pressure from cuts to this budget and cuts to the main grant…that has been cut by a third,” he told the committee.

“Sometimes the council may be thinking the voluntary and community sector can pick up a bit of slack created by some cuts [but] the voluntary sector is facing difficulties in that is has more demand and less resource and as a result organisations are closing,” he said.

Mr Drinkwater said it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly how the cut will impact any one particular job, but would impact the aggregate work the group does for children and young people – including training events and representing at strategic boards and workshops.

“To be realistic we are looking at cuts elsewhere, there are cuts on cuts.

“I think the most likely thing to happen is there will be a lot of changes," he said.