YES - Mark Vernon, youth service manager, West Berkshire Council
As a youth service that has recently received a positive Ofsted report, we found the inspection process to be constructive, although unkind to the rainforests due to the amount of paper it produced. The actions required by Ofsted to improve our service have given us a mandate to respond to areas we had identified.
The current system of re-inspection for poor or unsatisfactory services is quite rigorous, but I do agree there needs to be a final sanction for authorities that continue to offer poor quality services to young people.
There are risks with the proposal to outsource a failing service. A local authority may see this as a way of redirecting funding, if they no longer had to support a service.
Another aspect that could potentially cause difficulties for the secretary of state would be identifying an agency to take over the service. In some areas the voluntary sector could be a possibility, but in others the voluntary sector infrastructure would not be there to support such a venture.
NO - Doug Nicholls, general secretary, Community and Youth Workers' Union
There is no alternative to a publicly funded statutory service run by publicly accountable local authorities within their education departments and subject to Ofsted inspections. Ofsted has no jurisdiction over private companies and the experiments with privatisation or out-sourcing of services have failed.
There are many appalling local authority services that need a major overhaul.
This should be achieved by special support measures. If half the Connexions publicity budget had been spent on supporting some ailing local authority youth services, we would have less of a problem. But we cannot deny the problem that in England, local authorities still do not have a statutory duty to provide a youth service. The minister of state has the power to intervene, which is welcome, but this means little if local authorities are still not required to provide a service.
YES - John Gilbert, head of children's and young people's services, Telford & Wrekin Council
The Resourcing Excellent Youth Services document is positive. It starts to give real credence to youth services and their links with Connexions.
But there is a bit of confusion. It is clear we have to deliver services together. It also gives teeth to the secretary of state for the first time, where authorities might have to give their youth services over to another supplier.
It's a threat, but it will give youth services more clout. There are some authorities that are not providing good services and this is the ultimate sanction. Perhaps the Government would put in other measures at a local authority before they got to that state. If you get someone else running it, the specifications have to be written and that could transfer the problem onto someone else.
Taking away youth services would reflect badly on an authority. If this means youth services are taken seriously, then I'm in favour, but it needs to be looked into.
NO - Brendan Loughran, county manager, education and community department, Cheshire County Council
I do not think taking under-performing youth services away from local authorities is a good idea.
What the Government has done is to inject some much-needed funding and some baseline standards into the youth service.
The youth service is so diverse that until there is a level playing field of provision, with minimum standards, minimum per capita spend and a realistic capital building programme, no comparisons will be meaningful. But if this is just a way of driving local authority youth services into the control of Connexions then why not say so.
Youth services complement the Connexions strategy and are key partners in delivery. Youth work is an essential part of the education system.
Connexions helps young people to get the most from that system. Why not recognise that we have a lot of work to do to create excellent youth services and get on with investing in it. More carrot, less stick.
