Our youth service is on the chopping block

By Jack Swan

It's a shame that the first proper blog post has to be about something negative, but hey, rule number one of writing is to hook your audience in with some conflict. So - here goes.

Last Thursday, Councillor Ray Gooding was featured in an interview on Radio Essex. What he announced came as a shock to all of us involved in the youth service: the county council is planning to cut £3m out of a £5.1m budget, or over 60% of the service's funding.

As if this 'efficiency saving' wasn't devastating enough, bear in mind that the youth service has spent three years recovering from the last round of spending cuts - before 2010, its budget was as much as £12m. Unfortunately, the youth service suffered heavily in the spending cuts that followed the Coalition coming into power, and so did the young people of Essex - not only did the youth service lose £7m worth of funding but the Essex branch of Connexions was also shut down.

(Connexions used to provide, in its own words, "Health, Money, Relationships, Citizenship, Learning, Work, Free-time, Housing and Transport". The youth service has done an incredible job trying to meet as man of those provisions as it can with less than half its old budget.)

Since the 2010 round of cuts, the organisation has been forced to rebuild with a significantly reduced staffing body, fewer facilities, and fewer resources. In spite of this, the workers and young people involved have managed to support and develop several excellent schemes.

The Chelmer Gate youth hub in Chelmsford

What has the youth service done recently?

Since November 2012, the Chelmsford Youth Council has gone from just two members to thirteen, following an intensive and proactive word-of-mouth campaign that has brought in a passionate and dedicated team who are a pleasure to work with every other Thursday.

In May 2013, the Chelmer Gate Youth Hub was opened, an event partly organised by the Youth Council, which saw hundreds of young people pass through the doors. Many more have poured through since, taking advantage of the drop-in advice services on housing, sexual health, education and careers that are provided.

Over in Colchester, even just one year after the cuts, their local youth council managed to put together a Battle of the Bands event. Dozens of local teens attended to see over 15 local acts duel it out in a celebration of "the talent, passion and huge devotion" of young musicians in the area. The event was a massive success, thrilling the crowds and bringing together the community - and it was organised by young people, with the help of the youth service.

There are many, many more events that young people have managed to organise across the county, in spite of the tight budget - but would be impossible without the services and expertise that the current youth service budget pays for.

This is leaving out the large number of other services provided by the Youth Service, such as training young people to get jobs, and providing alternative education. There's also schemes like Corner Club (for disabled young people), Plectrooms (for musicians), and Young Carers (a self-explanatory and important group).

The youth service even provides Duke of Edinburgh, the National Citizen Service, and the Prince's Trust scheme. And these numerous examples are just the tip of the iceberg! In upcoming weeks, I'll be visiting as many of these different groups as possible, to talk to members and share exactly why they feel that these services are so important.

When you put all these things together, you end up with an organisation that employs nearly 200 dedicated and well-trained staff, delivering services that in many cases are life-changing, to at the very least 5,000 young people per month.

And they're going to cut 60% of the funding for these services.

Read more:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-24399116

http://www.yourharlow.com/2013/10/10/are-all-youth-services-to-be-axed-in-harlow/