CYP Now - Councils to keep most youth services in-house

Local authorities plan to continue to deliver the vast majority of their services for young people in-house while only one in three is considering alternative funding models, despite the government's desire for reform, a CYP Now investigation has found.

Data obtained through freedom of information requests from 90 out of 152 local authorities in England reveals that councils on average only currently commission out 27 per cent of their combined information, advice and guidance, targeted youth support, youth participation and open access and detached youth work to external providers, with the remaining 73 per cent delivered in-house.

By 2012/13, local authorities anticipate that the percentage of services commissioned out will increase marginally to around 32 per cent, with 68 per cent delivered in-house.

Information, advice and guidance is the service most likely to be commissioned out, with almost half of these services handed over to external providers. By contrast, only 20 per cent of local authority targeted youth support programmes and 25 per cent of open access and detached youth work programmes are currently handed over to external providers. However, local authorities do anticipate that 37 per cent of their open access and detached youth work will be provided externally in 2012/13, while targeted programmes will remain largely static, nudging up next year to only 21 per cent.

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