Councils "take easy option" to cut youth services, says youth minister

Wilson, the minister responsible for youth work, told CYP Now that councils had been too quick in recent years to cut funding and close services in the face of shrinking budgets, instead of devising innovative ways of delivering provision differently.

“I cannot tell you how disappointed I’ve been with how some authorities have managed budgets and taken the easy option of cutting youth services,” he said, reiterating concerns he first raised in parliament last month.

“If they thought about youth services in a strategic way, they could think about how to deliver them in a different way.”

Latest Section 251 return figures show local authority spending on youth services has fallen by £500m since 2010, largely as a result of a 56 per cent cut in the early intervention grant over that period. Last month, a joint investigation by CYP Now, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and The Children’s Society found that spending on young people’s services is in line for a further 12.62 per cent spending reduction in 2015/16.

But Wilson said the problem is not one of money but the failure of councils to think in a more “strategic, clever way”.

“Councils can look around for best practice. They need to get their head up and look around. You don’t need to do everything the same old way. As a local authority you have the license, certainly from me, to do things differently.

“Local authorities should know what’s going on in their local area. They should be able to provide services that are adequate to their local area, and if they can’t do that then you wonder what the hell they are doing,” he said.

Wilson, who has previously spoken out against implementing a legal minimum requirement on how much councils spend on youth services, says it is up to councils to make their own decisions.

To read more see the 4 August edition of CYP Now