First a Labour MP says that the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) does not reach disadvantaged young people (YPN, 30 May-5 June, p3); then a couple of youth workers say that it does. Can they both be right?
Yes, they can. The fundamental problem with the YOF is that while it is a national scheme - it is central government money - it is left up to local authorities to administer it as they wish.
It has become clear that the Department for Education and Skills did not put into place sufficient safeguards to avoid some of the blatantly unfair and unequal practices of which we have evidence: differing application procedures for different groups; applicants being told by email of a date for an interview but not given a time; being invited for interview at two working days' notice; inviting applicants (and remember that this is a fund targeted at 11- to 19-year-olds) to an interview at midday on a Monday; committing all the 2006-07 allocation before all shortlisted applications had been processed.
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