Kent, Somerset and North Somerset

CYPNow has reported that Kent County Council has revised its plans on the future of youth services and has pledged to provide more youth workers in schools and provide a new youth centre where an existing youth centre is set to close. This follows a consultation which received more than 700 responses.

CYPNow has reported that Somerset County Council has also revised its plans following a consultation. An additional £100,000 has been set aside to fund voluntary groups to provide youth services (taking the total to £1.3m). The report says that the withdrawal of direct youth services has been put back until 2014, with two youth centres remaining open until then.

The bid for a judicial review into North Somerset Council’s plans to cut youth services by 70% in Somerset has been granted.

Funding for Youth Offending Teams

CYPNow has reported that it has been confirmed that the Youth Justice Board grant for 2012/13 will be £107.8m, down 6.75 per cent on the 2011/12 figure of £115.6m. This is funding for Youth Offending Teams (YOTs). The cut in funding represents a smaller decrease than the previous year when the total fell 19.73 per cent from £144m. The YJB has said it will be monitoring any impact on services. (CYPNow has previously reported that the Youth Justice Board faces a 10% cut to its funding for 2012/13.)

Cuts to children and young people’s charities

The National Children’s Bureau has published Beyond the Cuts: Children’s charities adapting to austerity. The report says that the 34,000 charities in England that work primarily with children and young people will lose £405 million in statutory funding in the five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16. It notes that children and young people’s charities are particularly vulnerable to cuts, as they receive more of their income from statutory sources and are four times less likely to receive corporate support. It shows that charities are taking various actions to manage the impact of the cuts, including reducing the number of staff they employ and cutting back on the range of services they offer, as well as developing consortia and mergers. A small but significant minority of charities said that it was ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ that they would be forced to close in the next 12 months.

Somerset and Gloucestershire

Bath and North East Somerset Council is to increase funding for children, young people and families from £11.21m to £11.46m. The increase will see extra funding going to local youth projects and an extra £13,000 to the council’s youth enablement fund for youth groups.

North Somerset Council is facing a judicial review over cuts to youth services. “Public Interest Lawyers Ltd (PIL) is representing a resident of North Somerset in a judicial review of North Somerset Council’s decision to cut Youth Services provision by over 70% between 2011/12 and 2014/15… The Claimant contends that North Somerset Council failed to thoroughly evaluate the impact and long-term sustainability of community-run youth services and that it failed to adequately consult the users themselves or even to make them aware of the scale and impact of the proposed changes. He also argues that the Council breached its statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010 in failing to give due regard to its obligation to consider the ‘protected characteristics’ of a number of service users – characteristics such as disability, gender and race.”

South Gloucestershire Council is consulting on plans to reduce the number of children’s centres and stop running youth clubs as part of plans to target services to the most vulnerable children, young people and families. The council said that only 20 per cent of young people regularly visited the 13 youth clubs that the council runs. Some councillors are opposing the plans.

Funding for crime reduction and health organisations

The Home Office has published details of the recipients of the community action against crime: innovation fund, which is worth £10million over the next two years. Recipients include NCVYS members Catch22, St Giles Trust, The Boys Brigade, Somerset Rural Youth Project and the Safer London Foundation.

The Department of Health has published details of the recipients of the Voluntary Sector Partnership awards for 2012-13, with 74 charities to  get a share of more than £6.8 million. Recipients include NCVYS members The Princess Royal Trust (now Carers Trust), YouthNet and Platform 51.

Volunteer centres

The Institute for Volunteering Research has published the Volunteering England Annual Membership Return report. It found that the income of volunteer centres is declining – though they gained new funds from grant-making bodies they lost an average of 12% of their local authority funding in 2010/11 . A third of volunteer centres said they had been unable to meet demand for their services. The report notes that volunteering enquiries are highest amongst the 19-25 year old age group, representing 27% of all enquiries and suggests that Volunteer Centres are “particularly effective at engaging young people and/or that young people require more support to volunteer and therefore are more likely to access VCs.”

Cuts to services for young women and drug education

Civil Society magazine has reported that Platform 51, formerly the YWCA, is being forced to close three of its 15 centres in an attempt to tackle its persistent budget deficit. The branches in Plymouth, Northampton and Truro will all close, and there will be further redundancies at Platform 51’s headquarters in Oxford.

The Guardian has reported that Department of Health spending on drugs education has fallen from £3.9m in 2009-10 to £0.5m in 2010-11, a reduction of 80%.  It notes that “Money to the drug advice service ‘Frank’ was cut substantially when the coalition imposed its cuts in 2010.” The Drug Education Forum, which disseminates research on drugs and drug education to teachers, has closed following the ending of its £60,000 government grant.

Advice services

The Justice for All campaign has published Advice Needs… What local advice charities need to continue serving their communities: A view from the front line. The report shows that the not for profit advice sector will be at least £100m a year worse off by 2013/14. The poll of over 200 community advice organisations showed that three quarters reported serious funding cuts in the last year, with 1 in 5 facing cuts so severe that their survival is under threat. In the survey, 81% of charities predict they will be able to help fewer people in future, despite rising demand. Over half reported cutting back on services for people with the most complex problems and a third are having to cut back on the number of volunteers, as they cannot afford training or support.

The Budget announced £40m for the charity advice sector, but the campaign said that this “is not nearly enough to cover the £100m annual shortfall charity advice providers are facing.”

Details of local authority cuts to youth services

A House of Commons library paper, commissioned by Labour, reveals details of Local Authority expenditure on Youth Work, Connexions and overall provisions for young people in 2008-09 and 2010-11. The survey of  just over two-fifths of  councils reveals that 56% of Conservative or Lib Dem councils reduced the amount spent on youth services between 2008-09 and 2010-11. This was also the case for 41% of Labour councils and 46% of councils without a majority. It shows that on average ‘Youth Work’ and ‘Connexions’ spending has decreased by 17% across England between 2008-09 and 2010-11 . However over the same period “Provisions for young people” has not changed and provisions per capita has increased by 2%.

Cuts to Department for Education

CYP Now has published a leaked email which shows that the Department for Education’s children, young people and families directorate will receive a 13% reduction to its budget in 2012/13, down to £21.7m. The number of full-time equivalent posts will also fall from last October’s level of 436 to 330. The email also noted that the directorate’s priorities for the coming financial year will be early years education; special education needs and disability; care and adoption; child protection and the wider safeguarding system; and youth services.