Have I mentioned that I’m on the cross-party Member Task Group working with the ‘Youth Project Team’ at the development of Youth Services in Surrey? Possibly not, because its meetings are not held in public, and so it would be difficult to sift out what is still confidential and what can be published.

But coming out of that, the Youth Project Team has now sent a key report to the Executive (Surrey’s ‘Cabinet’) for consideration next Tuesday, 21st October.

You can find it on SCC website here.

The main officer report with the recommendations is here

There’s a lot that’s not to disagree with in there - IMHP there’s a door opening a crack towards making better use of Youth Centres and the resources we have in Surrey,  even though we’re not going to get fhe County Council itself providing everything parents and youngsters would like to see on the ground.

I’m posting this now because it is the first major public statement in what I suspect could  become a fierce debate, early next year we come to the last budget of this Council  

Metaphorically, of course. At the meeting of the Schools and Learning Committee this Thursday, the delayed paper on the future of the Youth Development Service turned out to be a two-page document about setting up a member task group to ‘assist with the review’.

 I can’t complain, because they’re doing pretty much what I called for: stopped the recruitment freeze, found £500,000 for this year to keep staffing levels up, and withdrawn the requirement for 3% ‘efficiency cuts’; while now, I hope, the mechanism is being set up for the County to take a radical look at how the different demands for youth services can be met. 

But there were ‘noises off’ earlier this year showing that some alternative scenarios are currently being developed, even though they were not brought to the Committee this week.

 No time to write more now - meetings and such like end to end this week and weekend - but I will come back asap to report more fully on this meeting.

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 28^th. 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.