After the fierce opposition which greeted Wiltshire Council’s cuts to its youth services in its 2014-2015 budget, a report outlining a new ‘community-led’ model will be put to cabinet councillors on May 15.
Cabinet member for children’s services, Councillor Laura Mayes, has welcomed the report which is based on feedback from young people. 1,770 young people completed an electronic survey, over 500 took part in focus groups and 21 young people wrote to the Council.
The basic idea is to provide community-led youth services with support from trained community youth officers. (The full cabinet report can be read here.)
Councillor Mayes has responded to the report: “It’s clear young people want support from a trusted member of staff and they also want a greater voice and more influence – these plans give them this.”
“Young people have also told us they want a service that meets their individual community’s needs recognising their area’s unique identity and these proposals ensure they have this by devolving power and funding to area boards.”
The plan will see local youth advisory groups replaced by Local Youth Networks which are planned to give a stronger voice and more influence to young people.
The trained youth officers would be the ‘go to’ person for advice and support on youth related issues, with a strong focus on building community capacity by assisting voluntary and community sector groups, encouraging volunteering and making the most out of community resources.
They would also have an important role in coordinating positive activities for young people with disabilities. Safeguarding would be strengthened by giving young people access to highly-skilled youth support workers.
This central resource would work with vulnerable young people, helping them to build resilience and stay as safe from harm as possible. A quality mark would also be developed to facilitate high quality youth activities across all providers.
As part of Wiltshire Council’s argument in favour of their new scheme, they make the point that while the overall budget for ‘early intervention, youth and preventative services’ is £2.982m this year, young people also benefit ‘greatly’ from the £2,194m budget for leisure facilities and services.
This appears to be the first major initiative to devolve to the area boards services which the Council can no longer afford to provide centrally – a policy that relies heavily on volunteers. And this – as Marlborough News Online has reported – is happening before any major changes and reforms have been put in place for the area boards themselves.
It is unlikely that central government will take kindly to council funds being devolved to area boards if those boards do not have proper governance and systems in place to ensure funds are used appropriately.
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