Fresh funding made available for youth services

The Cabinet Office has set aside a further £200,000 of funding to support up to five more local areas in 2015/16 as part of the Delivering Differently for Young People programme.
 
In the first round of funding £500,000 was provided for up to 10 local authorities, with a view to them transforming provision by March 2016.

“The challenges facing many local authorities mean that councils are rethinking how they can meet their statutory duty to secure, sufficient services and activities, to improve their [young people’s] wellbeing,” a prospectus document released by the Cabinet Office states.
 
“The focus will be on assisting local authorities to restructure or redesign their services to deliver their statutory duty innovatively, with improved outcomes for young people.”
 
The document states that unsuccessful applicants from last year can reapply for funding.
 
But local authorities looking to restructure in-house provision will not be eligible for the programme.
 
“Applicants will need to demonstrate their priorities and vision for transformation, why the service presents a good opportunity to implement a different delivery model, and what benefits a new model would have for young people and the authority,” the document adds.
 
“Applicants will need to demonstrate they have sufficient capacity and resources to drive forward the exploration of new models of youth service delivery in a relatively short timeframe.
 
“Through the programme we will fund a maximum of £40,000 for bespoke support but we particularly welcome applications from those able to commit additional financial resource to the process.
 
“Critical to this programme is ensuring that services are sustainable in the long-term and that they deliver valuable and meaningful outcomes for young people to improve their wellbeing outside of school.”
 
The deadline for applications is Tuesday 6 October.