Community care

As such, Mr Davies, the independent mayor elected on a cost-cutting, anti-political correctness agenda, faces the apparently competing pressures of slashing council tax and improving the council's struggling children's services department. After a miserable time for the authority, however, which has included the deaths of seven vulnerable children and the Edlington attacks, young people have to come first.

Of course, getting value for money for the council taxpayer is important, now more so than ever. Yet the planned cuts have the potential to rebound badly on Mr Davies and Doncaster's residents. A saving of about 30 a year for a Band D household, which is what they would amount to, according to Tony Brown, vice-chairman of the overview and scrutiny committee, would look

ill-chosen if it coincided with another serious failure to protect the young.

That's why Mr Davies must look beyond children's services if he sticks to his "aspiration" to cut 40m in spending over four years. Although 7.7m has been set aside for children's services in 2010-11, new spending on neglected safeguarding children obligations needs to be paid for, with critics suggesting it will lead to cuts in other areas of the department.

The council as a whole has to be run more efficiently, a point the Audit Commission seems certain to echo when its inspectors start work there. While cuts in some services look inevitable, the children's department needs more money, not less.

A price cannot be put on the safety of vulnerable young people and Mr Davies should not be afraid to modify his council tax commitments where necessary. Recognising the fine details of running an authority can be seen as a virtue, rather than a climbdown.