Wiltshire Council prepares way to pass some youth services to area boards

On Tuesday (April 21) Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet will be considering a report and action plan on the future of its five-year-old system of area boards.  The boards are constituted as committees of the Council.

It is clear from the action plan that the Council is preparing to pass at least part of the provision of the county’s youth services to area boards.

The report by Councillor Jonathan Seed, the cabinet member with responsibility for area boards, outlines a series of action points for improving them.

But a two paragraph section of the action plan stands out from the more obvious methods it suggests will make the boards more responsive, have a higher profile and attract the public’s interest and involvement.

These two paragraphs look ahead to the boards taking a greater part in providing and managing non-mandatory services which the Council will no longer be able to afford to undertake:

“Work with area boards to look at the success of existing community-led services and agree the communication, awareness raising and support to adopt this approach in more service areas:

This will include work that is currently underway on future open access youth services as part of the review of future provision of youth [services?] and how this can effectively be led by local communities through the area boards.  This will also form part of the review of the role of the existing CAM [Community Area Manager].”

The Council’s decision to make severe cuts to its youth service budget for 2014-2015 caused widespread controversy – and some anger – across the county.

The cuts were based on the Council’s view that too few young people were using the services.  This appeared to some opponents of the cuts to be based solely on raw numbers rather than the needs of those who were using the services.

The subsequent review of the budget decision is referred to (above) in this report on the area boards.

Councillor Seed’s report on area boards seems to rely on management changes to enable them to step up to new and complex responsibilities.  It does not propose any radical changes to the boards.

For a more detailed analysis of whether the area boards function in a way that could enable them to take on the provision of some ‘Council services’, please see this feature report.