Council or charity, what matters is what works

Our survey of council youth service chiefs this week provides a revealing snapshot of the state of the sector. The 12.8 per cent year-on-year cut in spending on young people’s services is dramatic but expected in the current harsh climate. Disappointing though it is, this figure might have been considerably worse given that spending on services for young people is not ringfenced. The findings also suggest a shift in the balance from open-access provision for all young people, to support targeted at the more vulnerable and disadvantaged.

But the real intrigue lies in the proportion of young people’s spend that goes on commissioning the voluntary sector. According to the survey, local authorities allocate it nearly £1 of every £5 to deliver services. The Association of Directors of Children’s Services regards this as an encouraging sign that local authorities are engaging with outside providers. The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, on the other hand, claims the figure ought to be far higher.   

Who is to say what the figure should be? What matters, surely, is what works, not who delivers it. In fact, five of the 58 councils in the survey commission the voluntary sector to deliver 50 per cent or more of local provision. More importantly, we need to ensure that the services that are commissioned are done so according to need and effectiveness. If some councils are passing on spending cuts disproportionately to local charities that have proven expertise in order to protect their in-house resource, for instance, this would amount to public service neglect of the highest order.

When Ofsted evaluated approaches to commissioning young people’s services, it found that only five of 12 authorities had well-established commissioning arrangements, and identified that “insufficient consideration had been given to engaging alternative providers from the voluntary and community sector”. It also discovered many instances of officers assigned to manage youth services who were inexperienced in commissioning.

That evaluation was published precisely one year ago. Given the speed of change in the youth sector, an updated, wider evaluation would provide a much-needed understanding of the capacity of councils to commission the services that are best for young people.