Youth Service Recruitment ban lifted
They’ve done what we told them – a month later
At the beginning of December County Council Officers reacted to massive planned cuts in budget for youth work with the panic cancellation of interviews and a ban on new appointments.
I put a motion to Full Council a month ago saying that the freeze should be lifted immediately, arguing that it should never have been imposed. The Conserbvative Executive Member responsible said it was ‘an Officer decision’, and wouldn’t accept the obvious truth that an arbitrary cut-off date leaving some areas, such as Guildford, under half staffed didn’t make sense – not to mention the considerable costs and loss of confidence you get when you cancel a recruitment round at the interview stage. And this when for years we’ve been told a reason for the appalling underuse of Youth Centres is that not enough Youth Workers can be persuaded to work in Surrey.
Looking to the future
A delayed report on the future of the Youth Service is due to come to the Schools and Learning Committee on February the 28th. Councillors from all the political parties have said for years that our Youth Centres are not properly used, but whichever group of Conservatives has been in charge, they’ve failed to do anything effective about it.
Youth Development staff do great work with some of the youngsters in Surrey who need their support most. But residents are always telling us that ‘places to go and things to do’ for all young people should have a higher priority. New ways of working need to be found to let this happen. The Youth Development Service itself should be best placed to do this, so long as it is not weakened by unimaginative hard-line Tories with their unwillingness to look for genuine reform and efficiencies, rather than cuts and sell-offs.
‘Told you so’ is small consolation
As for Vince Cable with Northern Rock, there’s a certain ‘better late than never’ satisfaction in having our proposed course of action adopted. I hope it’s not too late to improve morale and attract the new staff who are essential part of bringing about a much-needed change for the better.
