Council approves £1.3m cuts to youth services

Bristol City Council has approved plans to reduce funding for the service from £4.5m to £3.2m from April 2018.

The move will result in a "scaling back and reprioritisation" of youth service contracts currently commissioned out to a variety of providers, including local charities. Resources will be focused on working with young people in the city's most deprived areas.

"The main focus will be to work with vulnerable young people one-to-one or in groupwork, where a referral is received or a need is identified through self-referral or outreach, working to support young people to overcome barriers and build resilience," states a report outlining plans on how the cuts will be achieved. 

"The new model for delivering targeted youth services seeks to retain elements that are considered positive in the current contract such as the online provision but proposes some significant changes to tackle the elements that have not worked as well."

Under the new commissioning arrangements providers will be expected to secure additional funding for youth work in the city through grants and investments. It is hoped this will help ensure there continues to be a universal youth service in the city.

Funding for online youth services, including the Rife Magazine that offers work experience opportunities to young people, will be halved under the new arrangements, from £120,000 a year to £60,000.

Watershed, a charity that currently provides online youth services in Bristol, is now looking for alternative funding to keep the magazine going when its current contract ends in March 2018.

"We understand the budgetary pressures that Bristol City Council faces but feel that having worked with Bristol's young people to create Rife, which has quickly become a national exemplar, we must seek to secure its future with and for our young people," said Watershed's creative director Clare Reddington.  

"Our position is one of determination, rather than defeat." 

Bristol is the latest council to announce a significant reduction in youth services spending this summer, with Leicester City Council revealing plans in June to cut its budget by just under £1m.