Historically, the youth service has suffered from neglect, and because it typically represents only one or two per cent of local authorities' education budgets, it has also been neglected in terms of the collation of statistics about it. But a new youth and community services sub-block has meant that for the first year youth work has been taken seriously as a budget line.
As our feature and accompanying budget table this week shows (see p15), reality takes a long time to calculate. It's a work in progress and the figures will definitely develop and make more sense over time.
Some boroughs, such as Leicester, admit that they simply compiled their figures wrongly last year, which led the raw data to suggest that budgets for youth services doubled in 12 months.
Register Now to Continue Reading
Thank you for visiting Children & Young People Now and making use of our archive of more than 60,000 expert features, topics hubs, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:
What's Included
-
Free access to 4 subscriber-only articles per month
-
Email newsletter providing advice and guidance across the sector
Already have an account? Sign in here
