Youth work roundup: Redundancies, Scout units and wildlife trusts

Eleven of Wiltshire Council’s remaining 18 youth workers face redundancy, leaving seven officers for the county’s 100,000 children. The Gazette and Herald reports the council has told staff the remaining roles of community youth officers are to be scrapped and replaced with seven staff to be known as locality youth facilitators.


Nearly 350 young people with disabilities have joined 27 special Scout units in the South East, Midlands and East of England thanks to funding from the Youth United Foundation. The project, which was launched last year by The Scout Association, aimed to more widely and effectively support the inclusion of young people with physical and learning disabilities.


?Two wildlife trusts have been given £1m to help 18- to 24-year-olds improve the social housing areas where they live. The BBC reports Avon and Gloucestershire wildlife trusts plan on training 1,100 young people, and working with 7,000 in a joint project over the next five years.  ?


?A youth club in Bolton has been given £10,000 from Westhoughton Town Council for a new outreach project. The Bolton News reports the Bolton Lads and Girls Club will use the funding to allow qualified youth workers to head out onto the streets to meet young people.


A youth charity has called on the Scottish government and public bodies to take action to improve the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) young people. The call by LGBT Youth Scotland comes in its new manifesto and calls for policymakers and decision makers to take action on 20 issues by 2021 to make Scotland more inclusive.   ?


?A youth centre in Liverpool has been saved from closure after its £90,000 National Lottery funding ended. The BBC reports the Gems Centre in Croxteth will be funded for another six months after the city council agreed to pledge £42,000.


A total of 334 young people across England were treated for addictions to new psychoactive substances in 2014/15 – up from 121 in 2013/14. The Manchester Evening News reports the data released by Public Health England showed substance misuse among under-18s is falling but “legal highs” are a growing cause for teenagers to seek treatment.