Brighton councillors vote to strengthen ties with voluntary youth organisations

By Janaki Mahadevan Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Plans to strengthen links between voluntary organisations and Brighton council's youth services have been approved by councillors, in an attempt to retain universal provision while offering more targeted support to young people.

Brighton council hopes to improve universal and targeted services. Image: NTI

Brighton and Hove City Council’s children and young people cabinet group voted in support of plans, which propose to improve involvement of young people in decision-making and develop closer links with voluntary organisations.

A joint commissioning board made up of council officers and partner agencies will be established to co-ordinate the commissioning of services for young people and an independent broker, funded through the Local Government Association’s leadership centre, will work with community and voluntary sector providers and the youth service to produce proposals for local youth service delivery.

Councillor Sue Shanks said: "Tackling inequality is a priority for us and youth services are a key part of achieving this. Unlike many other local authorities we will hold our youth services budget at current levels for the next year.

"Our youth workers have a good track record in working with the community and voluntary sector, and we’re now looking to take this to another level.

"I believe the way to make best use of available resources is to tap into the expertise, creativity and goodwill of our staff and staff in local organisations as much as we can."

The council held a public consultation on the commissioning strategy resulting in 348 responses, of which 20 per cent were from young people.

The council’s participation team also led consultation exercises with young people and involved young people in the equality impact assessment of the proposed strategy.

A needs-assessment found that while youth services in the area are valued by young people and communities, young people are sometimes unclear about what is on offer and services vary between different parts of the city. The strategy states that mainstream services should be balanced with dedicated specialist services and that young people should be fully engaged in the design, delivery and review of services.

The proposals were applauded by Jess Woods, director of the Allsorts Youth Project and chair of the children and young people's network in Brighton.

She said: "The council has made great efforts to consult with young people and the providers of youth services in the statutory and community and voluntary sector in the city to ensure that their new youth services strategy is robust and inclusive, especially of young people struggling on the margins of our communities.

"Unlike so many local authorities and councils in other regions, councillors here across the political divide have been determined to protect and enhance youth services in our city."