The recent Audit Commission assessment of government grants to sports and leisure projects for young people did not employ the customary temperate, equivocating language of official reports. In fact, in a rare outbreak of plain speaking, the public services watchdog labelled the whole system a "dog's breakfast" (CYP Now, 29 January-4 February).
The report, Tired of Hanging Around, examined the problems that hinder the effectiveness of sports and leisure schemes for eight- to 19-year-olds who are in danger of drifting into antisocial behaviour. It found the system that funds such activities to be "wasteful, inefficient and bureaucratic".
The faults highlighted will not come as news to many in the voluntary and statutory youth sector. The average project gets grants from three different government programmes, each with its own application and monitoring system, the report found. Youth workers can spend a third of their time just managing budgets and chasing funding.
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