Council consult on Youth Service cuts
Devon County Council is launching a public consultation on plans to move away from a ‘universal’ youth service.
This could see nearly £1 million and around 60 jobs cut from Devon’s youth services as well see the council pull out of 34 youth centres around the county.
The council argue that the new youth service will take on a more ‘targeted approach’ which would see a smaller staff of youth workers work with council partners for a focused service for the most vulnerable young people in the county.
Speaking at yesterday’s budget scrutiny meeting, Council Leader John Hart said: “We have to focus on what we do and we’re having to focus on the what I term the old, the young and the vulnerable.
“We do what we have to do by law and we’re not, unfortunately, able to do what we’ve done in the past and what we would like to do for the benefit of the people of Devon.
If approved, the County Council would no longer manage or run the councils 34 youth centres and will seek groups to take over the centres during the 12 week consultation.
A number of proposals have already been received from community based organisations as part of process that began last October 7.
The county council has to save £110 million from its spending by 2017 and has warned that all services would be considered for cuts.
While some services are required by law the youth service is not meaning its current service costing £3.7 million a year and employing 114 full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff is an area where cuts can be found.
The county council has to save £110 million from its spending by 2017 and has consistently warned that all services would come under the spotlight.
However the council has said it is keen to find alternative means such as volunteer groups to secure a future for the service.
Public consultation will start on February 3 and there will be community events around the county along with face to face meetings with young people who currently use the service.
Local people and voluntary organisations who already run local clubs or work with young people will also be invited to these meetings.
Devon’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for the youth service, Will Mumford, said: “These proposals envisage a significant shift from open access, universal facilities to targeted support for those most in need.
“We’ve already had a number of meetings with young people, our staff and voluntary and community groups to talk about how we might proceed.
“We would now welcome approaches from anyone to develop alternative proposals.
“We will be particularly keen to work with local communities during the consultation to develop a new ‘offer’ for young people for which the county council might be able to provide some initial support.
“We would also be happy to discuss with our staff the possibility of forming a staff mutual or social enterprise to take on local youth provision.
“Of the 90,000 young people aged 13-19 across the county around 10,000 young people a year use the current youth service. But it is clear that it is just one element of a tapestry of excellent clubs and services around the county that are already provided by numerous community and voluntary groups. We want to harness that capacity and expertise to help develop a sustainable model for the future.”
The County Council’s proposed overall budget for social care for children and adults in 2014/15 will drop by £4 million to just under £315 million.
This budget includes increased spending of £17.4 million on services for the most vulnerable, such as children at risk and rising demand from a growing elderly population. Part of this is an increase of £2.3 million in child and adult protection.
To achieve this, other services to people have to be reduced by £21.4 million to balance the budget. The council must provide a number of services by law and the youth service is not a statutory service.
Draft proposals are to reduce the current youth service budget by £740,000 in 2014/15 and by £927,000 in 2015/16.
A document discussing these proposed reductions appeared on the Council’s website on Wednesday night distressing many of the council’s youth service workers.
Speaking on Thursday, John Hart said: “It was a mistake when one page of working document was left on the website yesterday. Soon as it was realised it was taken off.
“This was a snag unfortunately of IT and all that goes with it. Sometimes somebody pushes the wrong button.”
