Financial crisis delays youth sector funding

Andrew McCully, director for supporting children and young people at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), said that the financial crisis had delayed plans to set up an agency to oversee a fund to distribute money from dormant bank accounts and other unclaimed assets to good causes such as youth projects.  

Speaking at the annual convention of the Confederation of Heads of Young People's Services (Chyps) yesterday, McCully said: "It is still the case that the agency that will establish the fund is not in place largely because the financial industry has had other things on its mind recently. But the legislation is firmly there and it states that money must be put forward to the youth sector."    

He added that the government was committed to ensuring that the youth sector received its share of the money but said he could not give a date when this might happen as it depended on working with the Treasury and setting up the agency.  

An Act of Parliament was passed in November 2008 to allow the government to redistribute money held in dormant accounts. It was hoped that the money could provide hundreds of millions of pounds to youth projects in the future.    

But some delegates attending the Chyps conference questioned whether any of the money will ever be made available to youth projects, as there are fears that neither the current Labour administration or a possible future Tory government want to be seen spending large sums on public services during a time when both parties have pledged to be economically prudent.   

 Fiona Blacke, chief executive of the National Youth Agency, added she doubted that the any money would be made available "before the next general election".