Pressure growing to invest in Wiltshire's youth

Funding for Wiltshire's youth service is set to be revisited after the Lib Dems called for savings made from senior staff leaving to be reinvested in young people.

On Tuesday 24^th June Cllr Jon Hubbard, leader of Wiltshire's Lib Dems, wrote to the leader of the Council calling for this investment in Wiltshire's youth service. Now he has tabled a motion calling on the Council to support the £225,000 saving being used to provide youth workers to support youth provision during the transition to a new community model.

The motion should be debated at council on 29^th July.

"When consulted young people voiced they wanted to see a youth service that had professional support," said Cllr Jon Hubbard "yet the current plans put that at risk.

"There are growing concerns that the plan as it stands could close community facilities due to the lack of professional support.

"This money offers us the opportunity to right this wrong and give young people what they clearly wanted- youth workers on the ground supporting them.

"We will then not only have a youth service grounded in what the community and especially young people want but with people who have the skills to deliver it and make sure young people are at the heart of the service.

"If we have this money we should use it to make our frontline services better for the people of Wiltshire."

Here's the motion as submitted:

Council notes the reforms to the Integrated Youth Service outlined in the cabinet report of 15th May 2014.

Council recognises the plans for a more community led model, and supports the concept of communities having more control over identifying the best delivery model for provision of Positive Activities for Young People through the development of Local Youth Networks (LYN).

Council also notes that every Area Board will have a Community Youth Officer assigned who will work with community groups to develop the new offer and support the developing LYNs.

Council further notes that all youth provision in existing Youth Development Centres and street based youth work supported by the Integrated Youth Service will cease by 30th September 2014.

Council is concerned at the impact of these sudden changes on young people and Wiltshire's communities when the service closes.

Council recognises that when consulted on the changes Young People responded more than anything else that they valued the benefits of having professional youth workers to support them in personal development and decision making, especially the additional support available in times of personal crisis.

Council therefore requests the administration to use the £225,000 recently identified from senior staff savings to provide a transitional service for the next 18 months. This service could provide street based youth workers to work with existing and emerging community providers to support young people within their communities and ensure that the LYN's are voicing the needs of young people in the wider community including the villages. This will also help to deliver positive activities requested by Young People and not activities imposed on Young People - thus responding to a key concern expressed by Young People during the consultation process.

Council believes that this transitional arrangement will help Area Boards and LYNs to ensure the new Young People's funding best meets the actual needs of Young People in communities; thus better enabling communities to work towards fulfilling the opportunities presented by the new operating model approved by Cabinet.

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Meanwhile the trustees of Holt Youth Club have written to Laura Mayes, the Tory responsible for axing the county's youth clubs, pointing out that the club will probably have to close. Here's their letter:

Dear Councillor Mayes

This is an open letter to Wiltshire Council, as we are most concerned at the manner in which the young people in our County are being marginalised. The following points are an indication and evidence of our observations and concern.

• Over several months we have followed the path of the proposed cuts to the Youth Service after our attention was drawn to your News Release (Ref PR 5823 and dated 03 February 2014 and entitled 'Help ensure activities in your area meet the needs of young people')
• At each point we have asked what the implications of these proposed cuts will be.
• We had no substantive answer to the question.
• Whilst you claim that you have consulted widely without spelling out the implications of your proposed cuts it is impossible to constructively comment.
• We conclude that the consultation process has been a complete sham.
• At the last trustees' meeting of the Broughton Gifford and Holt Youthwork Project the implications of your decision made on 15^th May were explained, and we noted that:-

o You are closing Youth Centres and making all your Youth Workers redundant;

o The provision from the existing Youth Workers will cease at the end of July;

o Following which there will be 2 weeks of "celebratory events" though it is hard to imagine what there is to celebrate.

• Instead, apparently, you envisage that local communities will take up the baton.
• We understand that from time to time you have held up Holt Youth Club as an example of good practice, and maybe we are the sort of local community you envisage flourishing in this new regime.
• The difficulty we face is that our youth club provides an outlet for many vulnerable and needy young people and there is a need for professional well trained youth workers to lead it.
• Where do you think that we are going to find these for a two or three hour session each week after you have made them redundant?
• Not only that, it is clear that we have been dependent on the Council funding.
• The derisory sum of £9,000 (nine thousand) now offered for the whole of our Bradford-on-Avon Area Board effectively means no youth provision. Certainly this is the implication for us!
• Has the Council considered the long term implications of this for the youth work in Wiltshire, especially after you have to deal with the eventual alienation of young people and the adults affected?
• We understand that the session, which you had arranged for last Saturday to explain the implications of these cuts to the young people, was cancelled because you were concerned about the possible response from them!
• We wonder whether you will end up saving money from the public purse.
• Frankly we are not surprised: the clandestine way that you have gone about making these cuts is not helpful to your youth service or to those volunteers like ourselves who have taken the trouble to ensure youth provision for our village on a basis of shared responsibility and trust.
• Your silence makes us feel disenfranchised.
• It leaves us with little time to plan for the future.
• At present, unless you have anything else to offer constructively, we can see no alternative but to close the Youth Club.
• Time is of the essence. We would welcome your meaningful response by the 11^thJuly 2014.

Broughton Gifford and Holt Youthwork Project (Holt Youth Club)