Meeting documents

Cllr David Speirs

Statement to Cabinet 6 February, 2008

Agenda Item 13 Financial Plan 2008/09 - 2010/11, Budget and Council Tax 2008/09

Youth Service

The Labour Group continues to oppose the cuts of £395k per annum that have been made to the Youth Service.

We understand that these cuts have been made in advance of a comprehensive needs analysis which will inform the future development of the Youth Service.

At present then, there is no plan for how, where and for how long detached youth worker services will be provided during 2008/09.

Appendix 1, attachment 3 of the Cabinet Papers (page 23) shows the plan to drive performance while, at the same time, squeezing spending. The problem is, it has not yet been demonstrated how performance is to be improved alongside such significant cuts. The budget for the Youth Service has essentially been reduced by nearly a third.

As a result of the previous budget the Council is reducing the amount its spends on the Youth Service by £395,000 as part of its wider push to make savings. The council has stated that it wishes to avoid reduction in front line services "if resources permit this". However it is clear from the report brought to the November Children's and Young Peoples Services O&S Panel that a reduction in front line services cannot be avoided as part of this budget cut.

I should make it clear that the Labour Group supports the Councils attempts to modernise and develop the service within the context of the governments Youth Matters Agenda. A commitment to achieve good outcomes for young people through the delivery of high quality, accessible youth work services is a shared vision which I hope that all members can agree on. There are also specific proposals within the reforms which we believe may have merit. The attempt to share and integrate our Youth Services with the Connexions agency will hopefully save on management costs (although the information we've had suggests that to date there have been no savings at all in this area) and provide more opportunities for both bodies to work together for young people. The commitment to increase outreach and detached street based Youth Work is also welcome one if it means that youth workers will be engaging with more young people, although the question is how this is going to be achieved in light of these cuts.

The problems evident with these reforms can be extracted when we look at the O&S Report in more detail. As part of the reforms we have lost the post of Principle Youth Officer which according to the report will "impact significantly upon [the Youth Service] capacity to function effectively". What is of greatest concern to the Labour Group is the a reduction in the number of professional and part time youth workers in order to make savings.

The Council has made a commitment to increase the amount of detached youth work but how is this going to be achieved when the officer report actually says (and I quote) "This reduction...will effect the delivery of face to face work with young people". Instead, Youth Work Teams will have larger areas and less front line workers to engage with young people.

At the same time we have proposals to close the Laterz Youth Centre in Midsomer Norton, which includes a drop in for young people, and the Odd Down Youth Centre which hosts the Mix Music Project. The Council claims that centre based provision is outdated and not what young people want. However from the recent Young People's PACT Meeting held in the Norton-Radstock area we know that young people want more places where they can socialise and hang out. We also know from other PACT meetings that there is a fear of anti-social behaviour if young people have nowhere to go and end up hanging out on the streets. It is saddening to see the lack of consultation with stakeholders with regard to these reforms a view that has been put forward by DAFBY. You would hope that B&NES would want young people to be driving the changes, instead the November O&S Report shows how B&NES is failing in its targets to "Empower children and Young people to have a greater choice and more influence over local decision making"

The idea of taking the service to young people, rather than expecting young people to go to the service will be welcomed by many, but we have to question the ability of the reconfigured service to deliver this. We cannot see how it will be possible to increase outreach and detached youth work at the same time as cutting the budget and reducing the number of youth workers.

We have not been given the necessary information on the current usage of youth centres and the impact of closure. Youth centres provide a safe environment for young people. Furthermore, whilst we welcome the idea of more detached youth workers working with hard-to-reach groups, we can well anticipate that they will find that many of the young people with whom they are working would like activities (e.g. motorcycle maintenance) to be provided from a building.

The Labour Group understands the financial pressures that the Council is under and the need to make savings. Ideally we would like to see the savings made in merging the Youth Service and Connexions to be pumped into front line youth work. At the same time, we are deeply concerned by the loss of Part Time and Full Time Youth Workers which will significantly impact on our service delivery. We are also wary of the closure of youth centres without the consultation of stakeholders. We therefore ask that the Cabinet makes a commitment to invest additional funds into providing front line youth workers in order to achieve our service aims.