Youth work is not the only public service going under the accountant's knife. But the debate over spending cuts and an outbreak of strike action in Coventry has pushed the issue of how youth work should be funded to the top of the agenda.
One of the unions representing youth workers says the picture is bleak. There are cuts of £2.6m in Birmingham, £2m in Lancashire and £2m in West Sussex, as well as major spending reductions in Leicester, Staffordshire and Tameside, according to Doug Nicholls, national officer for the community sector of Unite. He points out that while services such as education are protected, youth work is left exposed.
Nicholls wants a statutory duty on local authorities to guarantee funding for youth services. "The key thing is to identify a dedicated funding stream for youth work, taking into account direct provision by local authorities and sufficient grant aid to the voluntary sector. It would need to be backed up by law," he says.
Minimum staffing levels could be attached — the union wants to see one nationally qualified youth worker for every 400 young people aged between 13 and 19. It needn't be bureaucratic, he says: "The Department for Children, Schools and Families can fund it. But we need a direct funding stream monitored by government, the Local Government Association and Ofsted."
The Conservatives have said they will open up more council services to charities, co-operatives and the private sector. But Nicholls wonders whether organisations such as faith and uniformed youth groups are publicly accountable in the same way as council youth services and questions the ethos of the big players. "There are big voluntary organisations and private companies salivating at the prospect that they can make some money by taking on youth work," he says.
The Confederation of Heads of Young People's Services agrees on the need for a new, legally binding statutory duty. The group has been consulting its members about what cuts they are facing for next year and the figures were due out at the end of February.
Sue Payne, the confederation's chair, believes funding for youth work in general is too vulnerable. "The local authority has a duty to provide alternative education and a youth offending team. But it doesn't have to provide any more than advertised positive activities for young people," she points out.
Long-term stability
Payne respects the voluntary sector but warns against seeing it as a solution to the funding impasse. "Social enterprises have got their place but I'd hate to see the whole service go that way," she says. "Young people need some stability and can't believe in something that is funded on a short-term basis."
But Paul Fletcher, director of policy at youth charity Rathbone, believes local authorities have an unfair advantage. "The government often uses charities to pilot initiatives because we're more flexible. They evaluate it and say it's good value and then use the statutory sector to mainstream it. We've developed the model and done all the hard work and yet we don't get the contracts."
He also believes that the way local authorities commission services is flawed. "In what other industry does the same body act as both commissioner and provider? We want a level playing field with local authorities," he says.
Fletcher is happy for the council to continue to "own" the process but wants an honest broker such as Ofsted to take responsibility for deciding whom to commission.
Jeremy Glover, former chief executive of Bolton Lads & Girls Club, says one big funding challenge will be building new facilities. His new role as chief executive of the charity OnSide North West seeks to replicate the success he achieved in Bolton across the region. "Our problem is that 90 per cent of youth centres are not fit for purpose and if nothing is done the strong relationship between young people and youth workers will be lost," he explains.
The government's Myplace youth facilities fund was a bold and effective way of tackling this, he says, but now the funds have been distributed there is an urgent need to release the banks'
unclaimed assets to ensure the work on facilities can continue. He proposes a more economical version of Myplace. Rather than offering 100 per cent of funding for a new building, a new programme could offer half the money, with unclaimed assets and local fundraising making up the rest, he argues. "The legislation is there so I don't know what is holding it (unclaimed assets) up. If we lose the impetus that Myplace created, it would be such a shame."
Rosie Ferguson, director for London at London Youth, believes the "real pinch" will be felt at the end of March 2011 when the current comprehensive spending review finishes. If the voluntary sector is to flourish, there has to be an end to the culture of short-term funding, she argues. "The biggest waste of resources in the youth sector is people constantly trying to get funding and keeping track of where the money is. Voluntary organisations are always having to reinvent themselves depending on fashion and the whim of funders," she says.
The answer is to test projects stringently, quality assure those that work well and give them long-term funding for up to 10 years, says Ferguson. And she questions the youth work unions' differentiation between the state and outside providers. "The line is being blurred between the statutory and voluntary sectors. It's no longer straightforward because you've got statutory services applying for funding through V and voluntary organisations getting statutory funding," she says.
Her boss Nick Wilkie, chief executive of London Youth, has radical views on the use of unclaimed assets: "They shouldn't be dispersed as bog-standard revenue or capital spending. They should be used for social investment - this is the principle of investing long-term in socially beneficial organisations rather than purchasing services for a limited time."
Quality assurance
Service chiefs are nervous about such innovative talk. Payne is cautious about any attempt to link funding to quality assurance. "I'm concerned about the amount of time that would be spent on this," she says. But what of the notion of charities with strong track records securing long-term funding? "Nowadays, is any government going to allow projects to secure funding for eight, nine or 10 years? I understand the idea but I don't think it's practical."
In Birmingham, where the council has massively overspent, the situation is critical. At the recent annual general meeting of Birmingham Clubs for Young People, the council officer revealed that from April 2011 grants to the voluntary sector will be withdrawn.
"That represents £800,000 that the voluntary youth sector in Birmingham will have to find elsewhere," says director Mike Smith. Smith says he doesn't have the answer to reforming the funding regime but believes that business people should have a greater role in exchange for match-funding and that the obsession with "over-professionalising" youth work must end.
Meanwhile, projects in the city hang by a thread. The acclaimed Young Disciples project in the Lozells area will run out of money this month unless funding is found. "It is a worrying time," admits project co-ordinator Jason Sylvester. "Last March I was given my redundancy papers but luckily the organisation found more funding. It's sad that, working in the voluntary sector, every six months to a year you could be out of a job. It's a shame because the type of work we do saves lives."
CUTS IN COVENTRY
Coventry City Council says it needs to cut a large deficit by saving £360,000 from its youth budget. Of that, £120,000 will come from making changes to contracts and working practices. The union Unite has held two one-day strikes and a series of smaller disruptions in Coventry in protest.
According to the union, 30 full-time posts will be cut to 27— although two of the posts are currently unfilled. Part-time staff will be worst affected. Out of 80 part-time workers, around 60 will be affected by changes in working conditions, says Pat Seaman, Unite's deputy convenor in the city: "Their contracts have been ripped up and they've been told they are all youth work assistants now, whatever their specialisms."
Less time with workers
The changes include a cut in hours — for every two and a half hours' work they used to do, 15 minutes has been chopped off their rota, meaning that young people will get less time with workers. A one-stop shop for advice and guidance staffed by three female workers part-time will be particularly badly hit, says Seaman. "They're all single parents and will lose £4,000 a year each. So they don't know how they're going to be able to carry on and feed their children." Not only have their hours been cut but their annual contract has been reduced from 52 to 42 weeks a year, she says.
A spokesman for the council says it has no choice: "The alternative would be to reduce the number of programmes we deliver and that's not in the interests of young people."
