We want to use this part of the website to enable young people and youth workers to raise issues with us, and we will too.
Current Issues in the News:
Cuts in Youth Services:
Up and down the country youth services are being cut as part of the wider cuts packages put together by local authorities in response to the 30% reduction in grant from Government.
In Surrey swingeing changes are happening to Surrey County Council’s Services for Young People. The report on this is on our main website, but there are broadly three main changes:
- Surrey Outdoor learning Centre (SOLD) is becoming an arms’ length organisation which will eventually be floated off as a social enterprise
- Total expenditure is being reduced and budgets of between £100,000 to £200,000 are being transferred to County Council Local Committees so that local councillors can commission(buy in) youth services to meet local needs from a variety of voluntary sector, or statutory organisations
- The County Council’s 35 youth centres are to be transferred into the management of the voluntary sector, with one County Council youth worker being transferred on secondment to whichever voluntary organisation runs the centre
- A number of County Council youth workers will be made redundant
- The implementation period for putting this in place is 2011, with the new system operating from April 2012.
Is this the best way forward – local commissioning, and an expanded role for the voluntary sector?
