I write regarding our youth review so you can hear ‘from the horse’s mouth’ what is actually going on. Elected Members set our policy direction and as officers our role is to put their policies into practice. They (and we as staff) face a very difficult challenge in meeting the demands of our service users with much less money. Our budget reduction of £30m over 4 years (£7.8m in 2012/13) has been agreed by the Council. It is non-negotiable and therefore, as I’ve said previously, we will have to look at how we do things in a radically different way. This will inevitably mean targeting our resources to those that need support as early as possible, reviewing our processes to rely less on back office support, streamlining management arrangements, challenging the prices we pay for goods and services and supporting others to do the work we have done historically, if better value for money and savings can be achieved.

Although this email is specifically about the ‘open access’ youth services consultation, I would like to reiterate that all our services will be reviewed in light of our ‘Journey to Excellence’ Agenda and our need to deliver a balanced budget. Therefore, our consultation and resultant review of youth provision is in no way any reflection on the work our staff have been undertaking and I would like to place on record my appreciation for the work they do with young people that look to them for support.

The budget for Derbyshire’s open access youth provision is £2.2m. This covers the operation of open access youth clubs and mobile units – a model that has not been reviewed in many years. Given the pressures on the Council’s budget tough decisions have to be taken especially where universal and non-statutory services are concerned. Therefore a savings target this year of £800k has been set by Members. Consultation respondents are right to query available funding for the new grants scheme being proposed and we envisage that we will be able to confirm the figure available after the consultation, when we will have a better idea of what young people across the county are saying they would like in terms of access to positive activities and the capacity to meet these needs via the VCI sector has been assessed.

The Council is committed to ensuring fairness in its provision of services for young people, which is why a conscious decision has been taken to retain 40 professional youth workers within our Multi Agency Teams that will provide personal and emotional support for our most vulnerable young people including: young disabled people; teenage parents; young carers; deprived youngsters, those struggling with identity linked to sexual orientation/ gender; substance/alcohol misusers; young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) youngsters and those struggling with relationships at school and at home.

I gave a commitment that the consultation would be inclusive so that as many stakeholders have an opportunity to have their say as possible. In the pursuit of this objective:

Two letters have been written to all youth workers informing them of the Consultation and Stakeholder events

A letter has been issued to all headteachers asking that they facilitate engagement of young people via the curriculum

An email has been issued to all Derbyshire users, inclusive of Members

An email has been sent to all District/Borough Councils/Parish Councils

An email issued to all Derbyshire Directory

An email issued to all GRID members

Press release distributed to all local media

47,500 ‘What Do You Think’ flyers to all students attending Derbyshire secondary and special Schools inviting them to take part in the consultation were distributed from 9th of January 2012 and all schools received their allocation by 19th January 2012

500 A3 ‘What Do You Think’ posters have been distributed to all Schools, Youth Centres, Adult Education Centre, Libraries,…

Amber Valley CVS are offering the following training – Introduction to Managing Volunteers, Attracting and Recruiting Volunteers and Managing Difficult Volunteer Situations.

Contact Jo Glossop on 01773 512 076 for more information.

Come and join the crew –we need at least 15 more Marshalls on the course or on the water distribution points!!

Contact Elaine Broadhurst at the Volunteer Centre on 01773 512076