Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director of Children's Services (Statutory DCS). To be presented by the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools & Families

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST MADE FOR ITEM:

None

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1. Agreed for additional budget to be secured to fund running costs for the building from April 2026 – March 2028 equating to the sum set out in the Exempt Part B report to allow Rising Green Youth Hub to continue to operate from the current location.
   
   
2. Noted the content of the report.

Reasons for Decisions:

Rising Green Youth Hub located in Wood Green opened in August 2022. Capital works and three years of running costs until March 2025 were funded predominantly from Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy funding (SCIL) alongside Neighbourhood CIL. A budget for dilapidation costs was not factored in as part of the development of Rising Green Youth Hub.

The costs of youth staffing have been met through use of the payments by results funding achieved through the Supporting Families Programme (SFP) which is due to end in March 2026. There will be no further funding available from this point.

Following CIL funding ending in March 2025, officers have been able to utilise funding from the Family Hubs Programme and SFP grant reserves within the service to fund the sum set out in the Exempt Part B of this report.

From April 2026, there will be no further funding available for both staffing and running costs for Rising Green Youth Hub. An organisational review of Early Help services (Children Centres, Youth Service and Family Support) will be completed over this year to achieve MTFS savings of £505k by the 1 April 2026. This will involve restructuring services to provide a reduced ‘Early Help Offer’ incorporating the lost revenue for staffing at Rising Green Youth Hub.

Alternative options considered

The options for Rising Green Youth Hub are:

agree for growth funding to fund running costs for the building from April 2026 – March 2028 equating to the sum set out in the Exempt Part B report and seek to enter a new lease with the Superior Leaseholder of the premises, from the expiry of the existing lease in May 2026 to March 2028, to allow Rising Green Youth Hub [RGYH] to remain in the premises. This is the preferred option as there is no viable alternative service provision at this stage, however the ongoing lease costs are unbudgeted and therefore will require savings to be made from other services across the Council.

agree for recurring growth funding from March 2026 to fund running costs for Hub to operate from new premises from lease expiry in May 2026. This will enable the youth hub to relocate elsewhere within Wood Green beyond May 2028. 

close Rising Green Youth Hub by May 2026.

Officers explored whether further funding could be provided from CIL. However, the corporate approach, including from Finance, is to focus CIL allocation on projects within the current capital programme which means.

a)    CIL allocations should help reduce capital borrowing costs to the council,

b)    CIL allocations are generally on capital projects and not on revenue as they are not sustainable. It was agreed an as exception to fund revenue costs for Rising Green in 2020 that would not be repeated again.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have increased funding allocating £750,000 for local authorities to expand their current youth offer via the Local Youth Transformation pilot. Twelve local authorities were selected representing a range of geographical contexts, two London boroughs have been invited, Islington and Southwark. Haringey was not selected to participate therefore not able to consider how this could contribute to future running costs for RGYH.

DCMS also launched the ‘Better Youth Spaces Fund’ allocating £30.5m for small scale capital projects of up to £100k. Forty-two priority areas have been selected for applications. Haringey was not invited to apply, however neighbouring boroughs Enfield, Hackney and Islington have been. As Haringey was not selected to apply, we are therefore not able to consider how this could contribute to future running costs for RGYH.

Officers explored whether they could utilise the Family Hubs grant funding to pay for the running costs at RGYH. Four percent of the overall Family Hubs Grant over 3 years can be used to fund capital costs for the four Family Hubs that were opened between 2022 and 2025. This equated to £200k for all four family hubs, with capital costs determined as minor refurbishment works to improve accessibility for families and infrastructure costs such as shared IT systems. No revenue costs were provided for any of the Family Hubs. As Rising Green Family Hub required little capital works due to it being a recently refurbished building, officers were able to negotiate for some of the capital allocation to be offset against the running costs for RGYH. This was for 25-26 only with the remaining costs being met by grant reserves within the service. The grant reserves balance will be nil by April 26. The remaining capital budget for Family Hubs is committed for capital works at Park Lane Family Hub which had to relocate from Kenneth Robbins House, and equipment for young children at both Muswell Hill Family Hub and Wood Green Family Hub and therefore further negotiations on flexibility of using capital funds is not an option.

Future funding has been confirmed for the Family Hubs programme from 2026 for a further three years. However, this will now be expanded to all local authorities (LA’s) with no expectation for pilot LAs to develop new Family Hubs, therefore there will not be a capital allocation to draw down from April 2026. The vast majority of spend within the Family Hubs Programme is ringfenced for commissioned specialist services for children aged under 5 such as parent infant psychology services and breastfeeding support, however the expectation is that LA’s deliver a programme for 0 – 25-year-olds and their families making best use of existing resources. There is regular scrutiny of spend and delivery of the agreed action plan by the Department for Education through formal monitoring meetings.