Inquiry into youth shake up ‘shambles’
Parents and staff not told by ‘inept’ council of centre closures
An inquiry is to be held into South Gloucestershire Council’s ‘shameful’ handling of its youth service shake-up.
After pleas from councillors, an investigation will be held into why:
- · parents weren’t told that various council youth centres have now closed;
- · youth centre cleaning staff were only informed on 6th March of the closures and that their services may no longer be needed;
- · there is last minute confusion about the employment rights of existing youth workers who may transfer to new providers taking over centres;
- · there is not one council official with overall responsibility for coordinating the service changes, resulting in different council departments failing to talk to each other.
The authority’s Director of Children, Adults and Health agreed at a recent council meeting that a ‘lessons learned’ report will be produced, but councillors may still push for the report to be carried out independently of the council.
Cllr Rob Jones (Con, Bradley Stoke South), who has been leading the Conservative group’s opposition to the council’s controversial youth changes, has branded this saga ‘the mother of all council shambles’. He said:
“The good and original idea of opening up access to the council’s youth budget and funding a more flexible service on a fairer geographical basis has been marred by the inept implementation that started with the decision of Labour and LibDem councillors to impose decisions-by-committee and then rig how the funding is allocated around the district.
As a result of this system of decision-making, no-one seems to be in overall charge of this service shake-up and so you’ve had different council departments doing different things.
Whilst one department is in charge of the buildings, another department is in charge of what goes on inside those buildings – yet these two departments have only belatedly started to talk to each other.
Add to that u-turns on funding, the fact that parents haven’t been told that various youth centres have closed, that cleaning staff have only just been told that they might not have a job, that youth workers haven’t been told what their employment rights are if they transfer to a different provider - and you have the mother of all council shambles.
We need an inquiry – possibly an independent inquiry - to ensure lessons are learnt so this can never happen again.”
Hanham Conservative Councillors John Goddard, Heather Goddard and June Bamford have been campaigning to keep Hanham Youth Centre open once it leaves council control. They said:
“We have had a dreadful experience of trying to keep Hanham Youth Centre open.
Parents don’t know that the centre has now closed until the new provider comes in and the centre’s existing youth workers still don’t know for certain if they will transfer to this new provider and on what terms of employment.
The handling of this very sensitive service change is an utterly shameful episode in South Gloucestershire Council’s history and marked the moment in many residents’ minds when the council lost its coveted four stars.”