Cllr Richard Gamble will be in attendance to present an item to the Area Board on Youth Services, and to consult on the Youth Activity Review.
A copy of the Cabinet Report of the Youth Services Review that was received by Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet on 21 January 2014 can be viewed in advance, and contains details of the review.
Minutes:
Cllr Richard Gamble, Portfolio Holder for Education, Skills and Youth was at the meeting to discuss the: Review of positive leisure-time activities for young people. Cllr Gamble explained that the discussion at the meeting had been designed to invite people to become involved in the formal consultation process.
Cllr Gamble’s presentation explained background information for why the service was being reviewed, and claimed that youth needs have changed significantly since the last review that was conducted over 10 years ago. Cllr Gamble also explained that the Youth Service would have to find over £100k in budget savings.
Cllr Gamble stated that new guidance had been issued for Local Authorities which suggested that the role of Youth Service provision should be to enable services, rather than direct provision, and to facilitate an enhanced role for voluntary and community organisations in the area. Cllr Gamble outlined recent youth projects in the Malmesbury Area, and highlighted the success of the skatepark and over £18,000 in youth grants for local projects.
Cllr Gamble outlined four possible outcomes of the review but stressed that the list was not exhaustive, and could include any number of suggestions from the public also. Future provision will offer sustainable help, support and resource to target the young people who need it most and provide opportunities for more young people to access the service. The four possible outcomes as discussed were as follows:
- Retain the current in-house service but reduce the cost;
- Outsource the service;
- Encourage and support staff to form a Public Service Mutual; or
- Develop a community led approach.
Cllr Gamble explained the consultation process and encouraged input from: Schools, focus groups, young people’s groups, staff, communities, and stakeholders. The Council was also reaching out to 20,000 young people across the county via text messages, linking to a survey, and also through social media channels on Sparksite, Facebook and Twitter. The final report on the consultation would be made to Wiltshire Council’s cabinet meeting on 22 April 2014.
Cllr Gamble discussed the views of young people that had been received and stated that the outcome of any review would be designed to meet the overarching need of young people that has been collated from discussions already, that it will give young people more say with regard to how the service is managed and provided, and to provide a wide range of services for young people to access. This would be designed with the Council’s aims to provide a better service, support vulnerable people, provide a greater involvement with young people, and to use the campus programme to support this where possible.
Simon asked about the future of facilities in the area and asked if a guarantee could be given regarding the future of Malmesbury’s Youth Centre. Cllr Gamble stated that a lot had been invested in what was one of the best facilities of its kind in the county, and gave assurance that the building would not close. Cllr Gamble did however state, that how the facilities would be used in future would need to be considered.
Alice McGrory from the Malmesbury Youth Advisory Group then read the following statement to Area Board on behalf of the YAG:
Dear Mr Gamble and Wiltshire Council,
We are writing to you regarding the “Positive Leisure Time Activities Review”.
We understand that in the current economic climate, everybody has a duty to “tighten their belts” as it were and we understand that the council has to make cuts to particular services that it offers, one of which being our youth service. We are disappointed however, that no young people were present at the time your four options were discussed as we feel that if you were discussing our future then surely we should have been involved at the outset to enable you to obtain a true picture of what the youth of Wiltshire would like the council to consider for the future of youth work to meet our needs.
However, what is done is done and we do value the time and the consultation you offer us now and we would hope you hear our voices, concerns and possible solutions to go alongside your options.
We would obviously like to keep our youth centres open as we find they are an invaluable source of guidance and resource for all the youth in our town and surrounding villages. On the other hand, we understand that this might not be possible. We have taken a look at the four options available during a focus group and we believe either maintaining the service as it is but making cuts or a central hub are good options as long as the hubs are local and not on the other side of Wiltshire in Trowbridge or Devizes as proposed as young people have limited access to transport.
We would like to suggest a central hub with access to resources and youth workers be made available. The youth workers need to be qualified and could travel to locations in the town and the villages to meet with young people (perhaps pop up youth centres in village halls) so that we don’t miss out on the essential guidance from them that cannot be replaced by unqualified volunteers who may have gifts in other areas or adults qualified in other areas, for example, teachers (who are amazing at their job but who are not youth workers).
We the undersigned say:
“You can cut our youth service. You can cut our youth centres if there are no other options. BUT please DO NOT cut our qualified youth workers and our access to them”.
The YAG then presented a petition to the Area Board and Cllr Gamble containing a large number of signatures.
Cllr Gamble and the Area Board congratulated the YAG on a well articulated letter, and thanked Alice for her eloquent presentation of it. Cllr Gamble welcomed the comments and congratulated the YAG on its useful suggestions, and in particular, the idea of detached youth workers travelling to pop up youth centres around the local area.
Dave Wingrove of Ashton Keynes Parish Council then questioned how the needs of the youth in outlying villages could be met in future. Cllr Gamble was unable to confirm this as the review is still in process, but reaffirmed a commitment to supporting the most vulnerable in the county including those in remote or deprived areas.
Chuck then commented on the obstacles that CRB checks present to those who wish to provide support and called for a unified and centralised CRB check that could speed up and simplify the process.
Simon then discussed how local groups could support and evolve with the youth service provision. Cllr gamble responded by stating that a ‘mapping’ process was being undertaken by Wiltshire Council to identify all local services. This would then be used to identify how the Council can direct delivery of its service to where it can be most effective.
Finally Cllr Gamble directed all in attendance and all local groups to access the Consultation link and to submit any comments via the link below: