Axed youth service has been ‘badly treated’ by council

The county council will press ahead with a controversial decision to oust an “excellent” youth support provider and bring the service in-house, despite concerns.

Nearly 5,000 young people across the county not in full time education, in employment or training (NEET) have been supported over the last eight years by CXK, a charity which provides a range of services for young people in the South East, such as careers advice and mental health assistance.

The KCC-commissioned service helps children who have not been at school for over six weeks; entrants in the youth justice system and those being home schooled that have a high risk of becoming a NEET after finishing their GCSEs.

County Hall chiefs have decided not to renew a £500,000-a-year contract with CXK this September as the authority seeks to improve its provision for special educational needs pupils following a damning Ofsted inspection in 2019.

It was decided that “integrating” the NEET and special educational needs and disability (SEND) service with its own company, the Education People, would be more favourable.

However, KCC’s cabinet was forced to reconsider the decision made by Cllr Sue Chandler (Con), portfolio holder for children’s services, after concerns over a “lack of transparency” with CXK and colleagues about the proposal and suitability of the in-house service.

KCC’s scrutiny committee described CXK as “effective” and “well regarded”. They questioned the ability of KCC to cope with the anticipated spike in the numbers of NEETs this September due to the six-month lay-off from school due to Covid-19. CXK had helped 1,622 children from March 2019 to 2020.

Cllr Gary Cooke (Con), who first asked for a review of Cllr Chandler’s decision, claimed that the “excellent” provider had been “badly treated” by KCC during a virtual scrutiny committee meeting.

The former cabinet member, requesting a committee review against an executive decision, said: “When I look at the performance of CXK, I do not see anything that’s broken or needs fixing.”

KCC’s main opposition leader Cllr Rob Bird (Lib Dem), who supported the move, added: “The manner in which CXK has been dealt with leaves a lot to be desired. If this is how KCC treats service providers, it’s very disappointing.”

A majority of KCC scrutiny members voted in favour of postponing the May 29 decision made by Cllr Chandler during the public meeting. Six councillors supported the motion but five voted against it.

Consequently, an emergency 40-minute virtual meeting of KCC’s 10-person cabinet was held to decide whether to confirm, rescind or amend Cllr Chandler’s original judgment.

KCC’s education director, Matt Dunkley, told the cabinet that he was confident there had been no legal breaches. He said CXK was first made aware that its service would be reviewed last September due to “material changes”.

Councillors were due to discuss the contractual situation in April but the public meeting was cancelled due to the Covid19 crisis.

A decision was fast-tracked in May because of the need to secure by September a “flexible” youth support service, that included help for SEND pupils, Mr Dunkley added.

Cllr Chandler said: “I kept foremost in mind the young people of Kent, who will need this NEET service and deserve to get the best possible outcome.”

However, KCC’s head of governance, Benjamin Watts, said that the concerns raised by scrutiny members were “reasonable” and suggested that lessons should be learnt in any future decisions made by cabinet members.

Despite this, County Hall’s cabinet unanimously voted in favour of sticking to Cllr Chandler’s original decision.

Cllr Sue Chandler