Isle of Wight, London, Liverpool

NCVYS member GFS Platform has announced that due to financial constraints it has been forced to close down its Sandown Bay Project in the Isle of Wight after a 117 years presence supporting young women and their children. The project offered young mothers a unique service enabling them to receive advice and support on a range of issue, meet other young mums, and take part in informal and formal education programmes. NCVYS also understands that GFS Platform has lost other service level agreements with local authorities for their work with young mothers aged 14 to 25.

London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC) has seen a £120,000 per year cut to theirr budget from London Councils funding. LVSC will no longer be able to provide support to children & young people’s groups. In particular their work specifically with groups working on improving education of the most disadvantaged children in London and those working to reduce children and young people’s engagment in crime and gangs will have to stop.

Third Sector magazine has investigated the impact of cuts in Liverpool on four charities. This includes the youth charity Positive Futures, which runs early intervention schemes for young people. This year, it has lost £380,000 from Liverpool City Council out of a budget that was £630,000 in 2010/11. It has replaced about £300,000 from other sources, including trusts, foundations, primary care trusts and housing associations. Despite the new funding, there have been cuts to services for 8 to 13-year-olds and the organisation has been unable to direct young people missing out on these services to an alternative local group because they have ended too.

Liverpool Lighthouse, which provides training and support to refugees and asylum seekers, the unemployed and young people at risk of exclusion from school, has lost £225,000 in central government grants and more than £500,000 from Liverpool City Council. The grant for the charity’s outreach programme, which saw the youth crime rate in Anfield fall by 25%, has been lost.