Children's services in city take £3m hit

Sheffield Council said its education budget would be slashed by around 3.15m.

This prompted the director of the service in the city, Dr Sonia Sharp, to describe the situation as "grim".

She added: "A lot of grants allocated for this year will be going. Spending reductions must be made and we are looking at how we can deliver them.

"We will be seeking to protect frontline services but it is going to be tough.

"In the longer term there will be job losses as not everything can be achieved through savings."

Other areas of the council's work are likely to be badly hit in the early stages of the coalition Government's spending squeeze, and senior officers said things would get worse as further cuts began to bite.

Sheffield Council must reduce its budget by 30 per cent by the financial year 2014/15 under Chancellor George Osborne's plans, meaning a total of 220m in annual savings must be

found.