Volunteers unable to fill gaps left by loss of council youth services, warns Scouts chief
Andy Hillier
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The voluntary youth sector won't be able to fill all the gaps left by cuts to local authority youth services, the education select committee was warned yesterday (9 February).
Speaking at the inquiry into services for young people, Derek Twine, chief executive of the Scouts Association, said that he believed that a "mixed bag" of provision delivered by both voluntary and statutory sector organisations was the best way to provide services for young people.
"In terms of our own organisation, we can’t even meet the demand for own provision," he said. "We have over 33,000 young people wanting to join us because the local groups near to them are so full but they can’t get in because there aren’t enough volunteers. We are increasing our number of volunteers but not at the rate to meet the demand. We therefore just aren’t in the position to pick up any commissioning opportunities."
He added: "Our volunteers want to be volunteers first and don’t want to be delivering someone else’s services."
Jason Stacey, head of policy, media and research at YMCA England, said that he still saw a place for local authorities delivering services: "We would like to see as much commissioning as possible. But would not say that everything has be to commissioned. We’d say that it has to be treated on a case-by-case basis."
The committee was also warned that the government should not expect to rely on unpaid volunteers alone to deliver services to young people. Stacey said that the YMCA works with some of the most damaged young people in society, which requires a high level of skill and training. "I think it’s a lot to ask of a volunteer," he said.
Mark Blundell, executive director of the Salmon Youth Centre, said that he saw a value in having paid professionally qualified youth staff. "I think that if you’ve been through a course of study that makes you look at yourself and how things work," he said.
The committee also heard evidence from Nick Wilkie, chief executive of London Youth. He said that the voluntary sector youth clubs in London that were struggling the most in the current climate were the ones that had invested in providing high-quality programmes. "It is those projects that are going more quickly rather than the ones that can limp along on £20,000 a year," he said.
The education select committee is expected to hear evidence until March and a final report is expected in May.
A full video of the select committee hearing can be viewed at www.parliamentlive.tv.