Haringey abolishes head of youth services

Haringey Council confirmed that other members of the youth services team would cover the “responsibilities of this position”, but said it could not comment on individual cases.

Reports in the local press suggested that former head of the department, Belinda Evans, took redundancy as part of the council's cost-cutting measures.

Evans has been head of youth, community and participation at Haringey since 2006.

Her LinkedIn page suggests she is still working at the council as head of the Children’s Network in West Haringey.

A council spokeswoman said the move would not have a negative impact on local youth services.

“We remain committed to quality youth services for all young people in Haringey,” said the spokeswoman.

“All of the responsibilities of this position will continue to be covered by other members of the youth services team and there will be no negative impact on provision.”

A representative of a local youth services campaign group welcomed the news, but said one individual could not “be held solely responsible for the shambolic delivery of this service”.

Locals have campaigned against Haringey’s decision to slash the youth services budget in recent years, particularly after the 2011 London riots, which began in Tottenham in Haringey.

A CYP Now investigation revealed that Haringey reduced youth spending by 62 per cent in 2011 and cut a further 30 per cent from its budget in 2012.

Jason Akinfenwa of the Haringey Youth Service Campaign Committee said: “There was a chain of management flaws which contributed to this service’s failure to deliver.”

“We hope the council does not feel it now has a symbolic scalp that resolves the factors of failure. Instead, we hope they sincerely look to examine their wider management structures that enabled such slack delivery and poor accountability to be possible and go on for so long.”

Haringey Council would not disclose how much money it would save by removing Evans’ post.