Minutes:
The Panel agreed to admit this item as a late item of urgent business. At the agreement of the Chair, the Panel were addressed by Ms S Chandwani, a local resident. She requested clarification of the budget reductions in services for young people. It had been reported that the savings were to be £1.6 million but the Council’s budget papers had stated that the savings were £2.1 million. She was of the view that the Young People’s Strategy needed to be communicated to young people in a way that they would understand. In addition, if young people were to be involved in feeding back on the Strategy, they would need to see some sort of tangible results. She stated, following the campaign against the budget cuts to services for young people, what happened going forward now needed to be addressed. However, trust with the young people who had been campaigning needed to be re-established. The young people were putting together their own thoughts on what should be in the strategy, which they wished to present to the Council and they had requested that a group of local residents advocate on their behalf. She stated that the group of young people came from service users of Bruce Gove Youth Centre. She felt that it was important young people were engaged with so that they were encouraged to respond constructively to the changes.
Jon Abbey, the Interim Director of Children’s Services, stated that the voice of young people was hugely important and input from them would be very welcome. Measures were being taken to communicate the strategy to young people in a way that was more accessible to them. He hoped that the engagement process would include a wide range of organisations representing young people. The Panel noted that the strategy focussed on young people in general and was not just about what the Council could deliver.
Panel Members stated that they wished to see a commitment to maintain universal services in the most deprived areas, such as Bruce Grove. It was also important that links were developed with other relevant services such as child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU).
Gill Gibson, Assistant Director (Quality Assurance, Early Help and Prevention) reported that the budget reductions were for both the Youth Service and the Youth Offending Services combined and came to £2.1 million in total. The reduction in funding for youth services was £1.6 million. The Panel requested that future budget exercises did not combine the two services so that it was clearer where the reductions were to be made.
Kevin Feviour, the Interim Head of Youth, Community and Participation reported a young persons version of the strategy would be produced and that it would focus on issues that were important to them. This would be based on feedback obtained from them. The development of the strategy had begun in the autumn, in line with the development of the Council’s Corporate Plan. Feedback on the strategy was crucial and, in particular, whether the priorities were correct.
Panel Members were of the view that the strategy document constituted a useful starting point but that further detail was needed. The strategy produced by young people could feed usefully into the further development of the strategy.
Jon Abbey, the Interim Director of Children’s Services stated that the challenge that had needed to be addressed was how to implement the reductions in budget that had been agreed by the Council. There were limits to what the service was able to do due to the level of the remaining budget, which amounted to £500,000. The Council was committed to consultation on the draft strategy. The budgetary issues arising from looked after children were also challenging but were a lot larger in scale and he suggested that the Panel might like to focus attention on these issues in due course.
AGREED:
That the issue of looked after children be added to the Panel’s future work plan.