Seventeen posts will go when St Christopher's takes over services from the Children's Centre on February 1.

Health Minister Howard Quayle has confirmed 38 employees of the Children's Centre will be affected by the changes and that 21 of the posts have been ring-fenced either within St Christopher's or the Department of Health and Social Care. The cuts are the
result of a move towards fostering and away from children's homes and will save the government ?5.9million.

In a statement issued ahead of tomorrow's sitting of Tynwald, where the issue is set to dominate question time, Mr Quayle said St Christopher's submitted the strongest overall bid in terms of quality and value for money.

He said: 'Given the reduction of almost 50 per cent in the number of residential care places required, some job losses were inevitable. This is unfortunate but we must focus on the positives, namely the fact that this reduction comes from more children
being in foster care, which is much better for them and more cost effective for the taxpayer.'


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