Editorial: Culture of Connexions must survive migration

After all, there has been three years to prepare since the plans were unveiled in the 2005 Youth Matters green paper. Some councils have opted to contract out Connexions; many others have decided to bring it in-house and operate it either as a standalone service or merge it with the youth service.

Change is always difficult. As our special report demonstrates, this transition is particularly painful for the hundreds of workers that are losing their jobs (see p12). Most of these are administrative positions that local authorities already employ and don't want to duplicate. The bigger loss to young people will be any personal advisers exiting the scene with which they have formed a historical relationship and have acted, in Every Child Matters-speak, as their lead professional.

The transition also heralds the removal of ringfenced cash, prompting concerns that councils will slim down advice services and divert resources elsewhere in the children's mix. The government launched a dozen information, advice and guidance standards in the autumn for local authorities to be mindful of.

The integrationists - those authorities bringing Connexions in-house - face two challenges. First, they need to maximise the opportunities it brings to work with other adolescent services. The best partnerships have done this without the formal framework of a local authority, working closely with the likes of teenage pregnancy projects and youth offending teams. Second, the Connexions ethos of being friendly, approachable and informal must not be sacrificed. Critics have portrayed the service as focusing heavily on teenagers most in need, bypassing the majority. As Connexions is taken in-house, more services will spring up in mainstream settings such as schools and colleges. But it is essential those most in need still have the confidence to get in contact. Services located exclusively in council-owned buildings risk being off-putting and symbolic of authority.

As Connexions and its army of personal advisers join the children's services fold, the services must get proper attention and a system of monitoring. Otherwise they, and the opportunities of thousands of teenagers, risk falling into neglect.