Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The purpose of this report is to inform the Council Executive of the findings of the Strategic Youth Issues Project Group and request a formal Council response to the report. The Council Executive is also asked to determine if and how the Council should progress the recommendations contained within the report.

1.2 The report attached as Appendix 1 invites the Council Executive to consider options for effective inter agency work with young people to prevent or reduce their involvement in nuisance, crime and disorder and also how communities can feel and experience greater safety from crime and disorder.

2 RECOMMENDATION

The Council Executive is recommended to:

2.1 Consider the report and provide a formal response to its findings;

2.2 Require the Community Safety Partnership formally to request and collate responses to the report from partner agencies;

2.3 Agree the recommendations and action plan as outlined in pages 10-14 the report, requesting that the named lead officers take action to implement these, and identifying the source of additional funding for those actions that require it.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Pages 10-14 of the attached report outline the specific financial implications of implementing each recommendation.

3.2 Implementing some of the recommendations of the Strategic Youth Issues Project Group report in full will require additional funding. The source of this funding needs to be determined by the Council Executive. Options are detailed in sections 4 and 5 below.

4 THE REPORT

4.1 The Strategic Youth Issues Project Group was formed in October 2001 in response to Member concerns about an unacceptable level of disorder and criminal activity in the area south of Bath city involving a group of young people and the ability of agencies to respond in a co-ordinated way.

4.2 The remit of the project group was to consider how strategic agency co-ordination could be enhanced and what opportunities existed for broader based strategies to prevent local disorder. Although this was based on the experience in the south Bath area, the outcomes of the project group work are intended to be disseminated across the Bath and North East Somerset area.

4.3 The group considered and made recommendations in five main areas:

4.3.1 Establishing mechanisms for early and appropriate intervention and preventative work with young people at risk

4.3.2 Improving support for parents and encouraging vulnerable parents to access services

4.3.3 Empowering young people and the wider community to tackle issues of concern to build confidence and offer protection against intimidation

4.3.4 Tackling misuse of alcohol and drugs by young people

4.3.5 Co-ordination and accountability by agencies

4.3 The full report and recommendations for consideration are attached as Appendix 1.

4.4 The Children's and Young People's Strategic Partnership is currently preparing an application for Children's Fund money for 2003/04 in Bath and North East Somerset. The Children's Fund is part of a Government strategy to tackle poverty and disadvantage in childhood. It is aimed at 5-13 year olds and is intended to enable local partnerships of voluntary and statutory groups to fund new and creative responses to children's needs and to make sure that children are not excluded from society.

4.5 The Children and Young People's Unit (CYPU) have just informed the Local Authority that this funding will now be available until 2006 and have also placed some new requirements on the fund:

4 OTHER POSSIBLE OPTIONS

Other possible options that Executive Board can consider are:

5.1 Not to implement the recommendations contained within the report. This would mean that the value of the work identified would not be realised and the momentum generated by the agencies in the project group would be lost.

5.2 Only implement the recommendations that do not require additional funding and request that the Community Safety Partnership considers the outstanding identified areas when allocating new funding. This would mean competing with other community safety priorities for 2003/04 funding and again carries a risk that the work of the project group would be lost.

5.3 Only implement the recommendations that do not require additional funding and refer those that do require additional funding to the Financial Plan Review to consider the outstanding identified areas when allocating any new funding. This would mean competing with other council priorities for 2003/04 funding and again carries a risk that the work of the project group would be lost.

5.4 Consider the funding implications of implementing the agreed recommendations and identify how these can be addressed;

5.5 Identify a single lead officer to have oversight of individual actions and ensuring the findings of the report are progressed.

6 CONSULTATION

Members of the Strategic Youth Issues Project Group represented a range of statutory, voluntary and community groups. The report has also been considered by the Council's Directors Group prior to presentation to the Council Executive.