Youth, Community and Participation (New Approach to Innovation)
A verbal update will be provided.
Minutes:
The Board was given a verbal update with respect to the reconfiguration of the Council’s Children and Young People’s Service.
As part of the Council’s review of it’s services and staffing structure, in light of the significant reduction in the funding received from central Government, the services provided by the Council for Children and Young People had been refocused in order to ensure that the resources available were targeted towards the most vulnerable groups.
It had been considered important to preserve frontline services wherever possible and in order to achieve this there had been a reduction from four to two business units these covered Prevention and Early Intervention and Children and Families.
In addition to the loss of funding received directly by the Council a number of external funding streams had also been heavily reduced including a 75% reduction to ‘Youth London’ and £2m from the ‘Extended Schools’ grant. These had funded after school care and activities and their loss would create a significant gap in the provision of this type of care.
There was agreement that once the new structure had embedded it would be useful if there was discussion with the Board around the new arrangements.
The Board discussed the proposals and it was noted that alongside the reorganisation of the service there were also reductions to other funding streams including a 75% reduction to ‘Youth London’ and a £2m reduction to the ‘Extended Schools’ programme, both of which provided after school care and activities; the gap that this created and the impact in terms of community safety would required further consideration.
It was noted that the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) would play a crucial role in new arrangements in these areas and it was noted that the Police Consultative Group (PCG) might be able to assist in working with the sector to establish how this might work in practice.
In terms of the relationship between the Area Committees and the Children’s Networks the Board was advised that there was a role for these to play in assisting to provide support and advice for young people; however, this had not been thought through as yet. It was noted that several pieces of work were in development at present and that it would be possible to provide a more comprehensive update at the next meeting.
There was also a general consensus that the emphasis on the family was key in terms of addressing issues in a holistic way that pooling resources for joint working on this area should be a focus for the Board.
It was agreed that an illustration of the structure chart for Children and Young People’s Services should be circulated with the minutes.
The Chair thanked the Jan Doust for her update and agreed that it would be useful for a further report to be brought to the meeting in October.
RESOLVED: