Somerset Youth and Community Service
Consultation Key Messages - Communities
Group Name and
Area:
Glastonbury
Incredible Tuesdays, Yeovil
Crewkerne
Chard
Jenny Kenton (County Councillor, Chard)
Jill Shortland (County Councillor, Chard)
Ilminster
Taunton YMCA
Watchet Management Committee
Minehead Youth Club
Stogursey Victory Hall Committee
TDBC Community Development Team
Andy Murphy (Neighbourhood Police Sgt)
Ruth Garbutt (SENCO @ Heathfield School)
Sally Mann (FUSE Performance)
Brendan Cleere (TDBC)
Carhampton Youth Club
Watchet Town Council
Wellington
DofE Group Taunton Parents and Carers
Shepton Mallet Town Council
10 Community Youth (CY)
North Taunton Activity and Sports Club
North Taunton Partnership
North Taunton Multi-agency Group
Worker Name:
Zara Scott-Davies x 2
Zara Scott-Davies and Zara Coulson
Zara Scott-Davies and Corrie Robertson x 4
Corrie Robertson
Gail McCarthy x 3
Che Percival & Spenser Sincock
Clare Chappel
Che Percival and Fi Jolley
Fiona Davies x 5
No name (Carhampton Youth Club)
Chair of Toursim and Leisure (Watchet Town Council)
Gail McCarthy and Ben Orszag-Land
Gail McCarthy and Fiona Davies
Andrea White and Zara Scott-Davies
Sue Kilby (Chair of North Taunton Partnership)
Craig Lloyd
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The Proposal
What do you think of the proposal? The budget is the only certainty. Are there any comments or
feedback that you’d like to give?
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Not happy, but knew the County Council has to make savings – were keen to look at alternatives
Shocked, worried, devastated x 2
This group should be given priority (Incredible Tuesdays)
Not surprised, were expecting it x 3
Will be very difficult financially x 2
Not happy with SCC
Not happy with SRYP spending money on Xmas cards and CDs
Felt like it was spreading the jam too thinly and didn’t see the point in having such a small budget and
two senior workers
Disappointment / dismay x 3
A worry about a rise in anti-social behaviour x 4
Timescale to put anything in place is unrealistic x 3
Youth work (and quality workers) are an essential not a luxury x 3
A big ask for communities x 2
Deplorable
Risky
Not sure the consultation will make a difference x 2
Sadness x 2
Was no consultation when the budget decision was taken and should have been
We want quality youth work x 2
So unfair on the young people who need all the support they can get x 7
The building is also at risk, which affects other community group
Unfair – other services are not receiving the same levels of cuts
Will be more expensive (in terms of use of higher tariff services) in the end
Not enough time for the consultation x 3
Volunteers cannot replace trained and experienced youth workers x 3
Some parishes do not have infrastructure to support commissioning of services
Young people will lose their trust in adults
Loss of expertise and joint working x 3
Disagreement that the ‘budget is the only certainty’ and challenging questions around the equalities
statement and process
Not clear about the impact, need to look at all youth provision in Chard – is a Youth Centre what is
wanted?
Not enough time, the precept is set
Should look at other CC examples
All partners need to come together
A great shame
We need youth workers to access other services for young people
Our disabled young people should not be disadvantaged even further by cutting this group as they often
can’t access anything else and are very restricted. It gives us some time out too as we know the group is
appropriately supervised run by appropriate staff
Timescale for consultation is poor and it is insensitive to ask staff at risk of redundancy to do it
Disagreed –young people unfairly targeted
A ‘crying shame’ to lose highly trained staff
Possibility for legal challenge (as libraries)
Consultation contains leading questions as it assumes those answering will pick up the work
Why are other agencies getting continued support – we don’t know what they do
Should consult more widely (not just town councils) and they don’t reflect young people’s views
No thought for the needs of rural young people
Need to know how to access remaining funds
Shows no valuing of youth work or its contribution to healthy communities
Will impact on those most in need
Won’t get the volunteers needed
Professional youth workers help us set up this provision and we couldn’t have done this without them –
we won’t have access to this help anymore and think we won’t be able to develop and sustain what
we’ve done – we need help x 3
TDBC researched going to a commissioning model and found it was not viable, SCC should consider this
Taunton has no town council and so can’t raise funds to pay for this
Young people value and need their youth workers and engage with them when they don’t with others
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What ideas do you have for the spending of the 2012/13 budget? Views may include:
 Deprivation priority
 Rural focus
 Grant versus commissioning
 Gap filling where no other organisations are doing anything
Discussed deprivation in Glastonbury
Incredible Tuesdays is a priority needs group, work needs qualified and experienced
professionals
Rural focus x 3
Want to ask youth work team
Deprivation as a priority x 11
Project work / targeted work / work with schools
Match or co-funding local work for young people
Need to keep what we currently have, esp. East Taunton
Youth clubs help young people overcome barriers and should be a priority
More time to decide what to do
Need access to professional support / workers / overarching umbrella organisation for support
Need to train and develop volunteers – capacity building
Gap filling
Support peer led practice
The most deprived rural areas
Money spent on vulnerable young people x 2
Need to look at all areas of youth work to make a comment on this
Smaller communities lose out when services are planned
Unsure that commissioning or grants will support current provision, or provide any long-term
savings
The youth centre is a good way or working with hard to reach young people
Need experienced and skilled youth workers to work with challenging young people
Who will decide what gets commissioned and what is worthy of commissioning?
Prefer devolution of money to Town Council
Nervous of central commissioning to unknown organisations
Local support better than a big organisation coming in to deliver a commissioned service
Need long term preventative strategies
WYC could be a neutral space and offer a way forward
Need intergenerational work
Weekend events can be organised by the community but would still need support
How much is being provided by others should be taken into account
The government need to invest in youth work – otherwise riots may happen again
Should be a joint sharing of costs between bodies that work with young people
Need youth workers continued support for our new club
Help to compete for what funds / support may be available
Charities do not have the capacity of expertise to operate a youth service – the CC should do
this
The Impact of the Proposal
What impact will the withdrawal of SCC youth work have on your community?
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May result in the loss of the Youth Centre – but MC will look for TC funding
Devastating – will result in closure as there is no other group of this sort in Yeovil (Incredible
Tuesdays)
No SCC provision at all in Crewkerne – but would look to finance through the Town Council
Nowhere for young people to go x 4
No-one for young people to go to for advice and support x 4
No comment
Service has dwindled over last four years and so were expecting it, Yarlington (housing
provider) are doing more now
Increase in anti-social behaviour x 9
Diminished resources to a very deprived community x 2
Loss of co-ordination
Loss of professional workers and professional support x 4
Loss of youth workers as community brokers for young people x 3
Other community groups will be adversely affected by the building closure x 2
Loss of important service for young people x 6
Another service won’t be able to offer the same quality of service x 2
Other (more expensive) services will have to pick up the slack
Initially club closure, but may get 106 (planning gain) money to pay staff
Worry that young people will be angry
May cause families to move to a different area with more facilities x 2
The elderly will feel vulnerable
Not sure, Jenny deals with the elderly rather than the youth
Youth service should pull interested groups together
Lower achievement at school
Building could become an eyesore if allowed to fall into disrepair
Severe impact on young people, families and communities (DofE Group)
Will be more expensive in the long run
Safeguarding is very important and the County Council should provide this (DofE group)
Will lose the valuable youth work skills to young people and community
Harder to reopen something after it’s gone
Less chance to meet young people’s needs
Make us less able to recruit and train volunteers
What impact will the withdrawal of SCC youth work have on your youth club? What can you do
to fill this gap? What can you provide without any SCC resource? This may not be direct
replacement. How do you plan to fund it?
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Ask the Town Council for £10k a year for the next three years to fill the gap, also ask for
some grant / commissioning money, check to see if school wants to contribute
Staff looking for alternative provision as parents cannot take the group on (Incredible
Tuesdays)
Look to raise money via the Town Council to employ own youth worker x 4
Will consult young people, asking the town council, but they have other demands so don’t
know if it will be funded
We will do the best we can, but we have limited resources and will need extra x 2
Would be good to have a full-time youth worker to fundraise for youth activities – capacity
building x 2
Looking to fundraise, but are wary of being responsible for the youth club in terms of h&s,
insurance and payroll x 3
Other organisations cannot be expected to fill the gap – the expertise resides with the
youth service
Other services (PCSO etc) will find an increase in their work x 2
Volunteers cannot replace youth workers
Loss of youth work expertise to partnership groups x 4
Loss of developmental opportunities for young people x 3
Loss of role models x 2
Unsure of where next years’ funding will come from
Everyone will suffer a tightening of resources
No youth workers – they have built good relationships which will be lost x 3
The club will be unsafe will volunteers
Won’t be easy to find volunteers x 2
Who will train the volunteers?
Town Council has no revenue money for salaries
Club will shut x 2
Youth organisations need to get together to discuss the situation, then talk to young people
Maybe look at working with another town?
Young people’s behaviour will deteriorate
Need more support to develop a sustainable way forward x 2
It wouldn’t be the same for the young people if we (parents) ran the group (DofE Group)
We’ve looked at merging but its not going to happen (DofE Group)
Town Council precept is set, so no monies available
Loss of support and preventative work with young people
Why are we being asked to fund this? Its irresponsible to assume we will and the
timescales are unrealistic – not enough time to assess and / or plan
There’s nothing like this for young people – only specific groups (sports or church)
Unlikely to be able to support something if the Base and Cabin as resources are lost
Need to know what resources are available before being able to say what is possible
Need money to employ youth workers
There are also transport needs
Less chance to meet young people’s needs
Make us less able to recruit and train volunteers
Use of Scarce Resources
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What is most important to your group:
 Provision of positive activities (universal youth club giving young people somewhere to go
and something to do) or
 Provision of youth work (as above, but with support / information / development
opportunities for young people) or
 Something else?
A balance of positive activities and youth work x 5
Youth work x 10
All of the above x 2
Planning to consult with young people
Range of activities with good quality youth workers
Young people cannot get the support they need solely through positive activities
Widen participation and peer mentoring
Youth work within a professional support structure
Support to develop community leaders
Think outside the box at other positive activities for young people
Need transport to enable young people outside Wiveliscombe to be able to access what’s on
offer
Professional advice, access to funds and help to access funds
From the limited resource, what would be of most help to your community? Options may
include:
 Money to pay youth workers salaries
 Professional support from an experienced and qualified youth worker for your staff and
volunteers
 Access to county or district wide events (pool or football competitions, arts events etc)
 Staff and / or management committee training
 Something else
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Money to pay youth workers x 12
A professional reliable team to continue working with the group (Incredible Tuesdays & Dof E
Group)
Professional support x 15
Funds for disengaged young people
Funding for a full-time youth worker and some centralised advisory time
Money to pay for SCC youth workers who are being withdrawn
Help in developing young people into leadership roles
Help with governance and youth work accountability
Money for building maintenance / running costs x 2
Training for volunteers
Payroll services
Staff training
Management Training
SCC to employ a company to provide what it is pulling out of
Youth workers are highly qualified and motivated professionals and they will be forced to move
away to find work – it won’t be easy to get them back and it is costly to train new ones
Not sure, need to do a needs assessment and ask young people
Capacity to build voluntary sector
Start up grants for groups
Ensure they are preventative and sustainable
BUT – not enough time, no strategy
Transition time and money
Need to tailor solution to the needs of the community
Funding for transport (Wiveliscombe)
We need to employ youth workers but do not want the money – this should stay with SCC for
the Authority to continue to manage the service
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