We need your views!

Please read the information below and in particular, the commissioning proposals for your area. Once you've read all the information click on the 'How to get involved' tab above and follow the link to complete our survey. Your views will help inform how we commission activities for young people.

This survey only includes areas where Shropshire Council currently provide youth clubs – Bishops Castle, Bridgnorth, Broseley, Craven Arms, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch. Outside these areas there is no existing Shropshire Council managed activity and proposals are being developed locally

Background

The role of public services is changing. We are moving rapidly to becoming a council that commissions activity, with less direct delivery of services. We are changing the way that we deliver group activities for young people aged 10 to 19 years old (25 for people with learning difficulties) moving away from direct delivery to commissioning services from a range of independent providers

Aim

Our aim is to ensure that young people can access a wide range of group activities after school, at weekends and in the school holidays. The purpose of these activities is to support young people’s wellbeing, the development of their personal and social education, and their preparation for adulthood. We want to continue to support voluntary sector youth providers to do more of what they already do very well. Alongside this we want to focus limited public resources on areas and young people with the greatest need.

What we are proposing is a very different business model to the way that Shropshire Council currently delivers youth clubs. Our new way of working is based on a commissioning approach and is shaped by Local Joint Committees (LJCs), working with local councillors, town and parish councils, communities, partners and young people to identify the local priorities. Shropshire Council officers are then responsible for acting upon the recommendations made by the LJCs.

Going forward we know that we must build in long term sustainability for local youth provision, reduce reliance on public funding, encourage local innovative youth partnerships and creative funding opportunities. We want to decrease the reliance on the public sector over time, for example by supporting the development of local volunteer youth workers within the community.

How are we going to do this?

Funding to support on-going youth activity provision has been provided to some LJCs based on a formula that considers a number of factors including how many young people live in the area, rurality, health issues such as obesity, incidents of antisocial behaviour, number of young people who have offended, etc. Individual LJC areas have then been allocated different amounts of funding according to their need with some areas receiving no funding.

The new way of working passes the responsibility to LJCs to make recommendations for future youth activities provision based on local need. In making these recommendations LJCs have reviewed a range of evidence, existing youth activities and the outcomes of conversations with local young people and stakeholders.

In the Shrewsbury area the LJC has proposed that the responsibility for the commissioning of youth activities and the related budget is delegated by a formal transfer of responsibilities from Shropshire Council to Shrewsbury Town Council – follow the ‘How to get involved’ tab for more details.

What happens next?

The public consultation will close on the 22 June 2015. The results of the consultation will help us to confirm the commissioning proposals for each area that has been allocated funding. These will then be advertised with appropriate organisations who provide activities for young people. We expect new youth activities to start in September 2015 with funding committed to March 2017.  The needs funding allocations shown within the individual LJC allocations are for a full year; funding for 2015/16 will be proportionately reduced to reflect the late start.

Commissioning intentions

PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON YOUTH ACTIVITY- SUMMARY JULY 2015

Introduction

The formal public consultation on youth activity provision ran for a six week period from the 11 May through to the 22 June. The consultation was primarily web based, using the “Have your say” section of Shropshire Council’s website. In addition a range of specific consultation sessions were undertaken with young people.

The web consultation (see appendix 1) provided some contextual information on the rationale for commissioning youth services and then provided specific detailed information on the proposals developed by the Local Joint Committees for the nine areas that have current SC delivered youth services:

• Bishop’s Castle
• Bridgnorth
• Broseley
• Craven Arms
• Ludlow
• Market Drayton
• Oswestry
• Shrewsbury
• Whitchurch

People were asked to comment on proposals for the above areas via a survey monkey questionnaire (see appendix 2) that also provided space for alternative ideas to be expressed.

The Youth Club sessions were facilitated by the Shropshire Youth Association (SYA). The sessions were undertaken with groups of around 12 young people, repeating the exercise until everyone had had the opportunity to take part (in some clubs some young people decided not to engage and we respected their choice). Having outlined why we were there the SYA worker handed over to the community Enablement Officer (CEO) to outline the commissioning intentions for the area, before engaging with the young people through 1 of 2 games to get their feedback on the plans, in many places we were joined by councillors who heard first-hand what young people thought.

Outcomes

Web consultation

A total of 145 responses were received to the online questionnaire. 89% of these responses were from people from a white British background, 34% of respondents were between 30-59 years of age and 41% were under 19 years of age.  

Nearly 71% of respondents are female and 8% declared that they have a disability.

28% of responses were from residents of the Bridgnorth area, 24% from the Shrewsbury area and 18% from the Broseley area.

Broseley features highly in the comments received, mainly expressing concern over the proposed withdrawal of funding from the area.

Some responses came from areas outside of existing provision, specifically Hodnet, Wem, Much Wenlock, Brown Clee and Cleobury Mortimer.

Overall 52% of respondents did not agree with the commissioning intentions outlined within the consultation. Many of these 52% of responses relate specifically to Broseley (17% of the 52%).

The following trends can be seen in the responses given as to why respondents don’t agree:

• Concern over the capacity and expertise of the voluntary/ community sector to deliver appropriate youth work
• Concern over the criteria used to calculate which areas are proposed to receive funding- in particular relating to Broseley
• Concern over the level of resources being insufficient to deliver a quality service
• Concern over the impact of reduction in or withdrawal of funding for activities- particularly around the risk of increased anti-social behaviour, petty crime and vandalism

Many respondents (44%) were willing to provide some ideas around alternative provision. The following trends can be seen:

• Use of and investment into existing organisations such as scouts and the Air Training Corps and infrastructure within communities such as village and community halls
• The need to focus on school holidays, evenings and weekends
• The need to join up provision with other partners- e.g. police
• The need to find solutions to the isolation of young people in rural areas
• The need to continue to support professional youth workers

The final question on the questionnaire provides space for any further comments to be made. 42% of respondents took the opportunity to provide comment and again many (15%) relate to Broseley. Trends in these comments are:

• Youth services should continue to be delivered by Shropshire Council
• Particular concern over the cuts in funding to certain areas and their impact on communities
• Concern over the capacity of the voluntary/ community and Parish and Town Council sector to work with young people currently supported by direct youth services

Youth Sessions

Fourteen sessions were delivered at twelve different venues across the County namely:

• Bishop’s Castle Youth Club
• Craven Arms Girls Club
• Grange Youth Club, Shrewsbury
• Upton Lane Youth Centre, Monkmoor
• Market Drayton Youth Club
• Innage Lane Youth Centre, Bridgnorth
• Centre North East, Whitchurch
• Sundorne Youth Club, Shrewsbury
• Ludlow Youth Club
• Meole Munchkins, Shrewsbury
• Centre North West, Oswestry

Two different exercises were employed to solicit responses from a total of 391 young people aged between 11 and 19. Young people were asked to comment on what they liked or didn’t like about the commissioning proposals. Trends are:

What they did like:

• The plan to keep the club open
• Trips and outdoor activities
• Learning new things and social skills
• Activities in the building
• A safe place for young people

What they didn’t like:

• Youth workers leaving
• The club closing
• Different/ new youth workers
• No holiday openings
• Worried about bullying

Other comments made:

• Concern over whether parents would consent to young people going further to other club venues
• Want clubs more often
• Fear of gangs
• Fear of drugs
• Not a lot of people know about the plans

In general young people were quite accepting of the changes proposed, this is perhaps due to the fact that in many areas the proposed change is relatively minor and consists of a change in provider and maybe a change in staff.

The impact is greater in some areas like Broseley, Craven Arms and Bishops Castle who may lose their clubs because no funding or insufficient funding is available to replicate what they currently had. In these cases the young people were aware of the likelihood that their clubs would close and the youth workers and/or CEO’s had already started to work through alternatives to mitigate for the loss.

Conclusions

It is clear that there is significant apprehension over the proposed changes to how services for young people are delivered in Shropshire. For young people this seems to be around staff changes and club closure whilst for the broader community these fears are around the capacity of the community to deliver professional services for young people and the wider social impact of this change.

The level of concern is heightened in those communities where no Shropshire Council funding is being proposed, this is particularly the case in Broseley.

Young people and the broader community share concerns around the impact of these changes on both the well-being of young people and the community with concerns such as bullying and increases in anti-social behaviour being cited.

There is however significant interest and an appetite to find alternative ways of delivering provision with communities.    

July 2015

Documents

• Appendix 1 Youth Consultation .pdf
• Appendix 2 Survey Monkey.pdf
• Appendix 3 Consultation events in youth clubs.pdf

See the news story and information about the youth activity suppliers selected following this consultation on our Shropshire Newsroom.