‘We are abandoning young people... this is a powder keg’

BIRMINGHAM City Council has announced the launch of a review of its youth services as part of its huge cuts package.

But staff in Birmingham say they can see the writing on the wall and they fear a dire future. The entire budget for the city’s youth, 14-19s and careers services will be cut by two thirds, and limited to just £1.2 million – a third of its existing spend.

Youth workers say the cuts mean their much hailed preventive work that diverts young people away from trouble will almost wholly disappear.

“We fear that down the line this will be reflected on as a terrible mistake – we are abandoning young people.

“This is a powder keg that will eventually explode and we will look back on this as the catalyst,” said one. There is a belief taking hold that unqualified volunteers might somehow be able to replicate our work and experience, or that we can dump more on already overstretched schools.

“Given our young population, we should be striving to be the best, not a second rate imitation.” The limited funding available is expected to focus on targeted work with smaller numbers of problem and particularly at-risk youngsters.

Staff who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity revealed the running costs of just two flagship youth centres – The Lighthouse in Aston and The Factory in Longbridge – would take up more than half of the entire budget (£700,000).

They believe closures of at least some of the remaining 15 centres and projects is inevitable. Said one youth worker: “The effect of this will be catastrophic. We believe it will inevitably lead to the closure of some, if not all, current city council youth centres.

“Even if the review finds, as we believe it will, that young people and other stakeholders want to keep the youth centres open and that the youth work offered provides a valuable service, there is no budget for it.

“This renders the whole exercise pointless and a waste of time and money.”

The build up to the review is having a massive detrimental effect on the mental well-being of staff, with uncertainty stalking their daily work, they said.

The company Newton Europe has been commissioned to carry out the review, set to start next week and running for up to 12 weeks. One youth worker said: “We feel that this process is tokenistic, given that the cabinet lead for youth services, Cllr Karen McCarthy, has already clearly stated that we would be moving away from universal youth work.” A letter sent to the campaign group Save Birmingham’s Youth Service by the council’s strategic director of children’s services, Sue Harrison, sets out her response to their concerns and the way ahead. It makes clear that the review will have to result in a much reduced spend on youth services. It also contained confirmation that the already slashed budget for the next two years will also have another £500,000 shaved off it ‘for contingencies’ – likely meaning more redundancies among the limited staff, said one worker.