Issue - meetings

Ms Jan Smith will present the recommendations of this report, which have arisen in response to budgetary changes, and have gone through a period of public consultation as well as discussion with the local committee’s Youth Task Group.

The Local Committee (Runnymede) agreed that:

i) the proposals set out as Option 1 in paragraph 3.1 of the report, as formal guidance for the Community Youth Work Service;

ii) that the Senior Practitioner, in consultation with the Practice Lead officer (West) and chairman of the Youth Task Group, may adjust the services offer to meet the needs of young people as they change.

Jan Smith and Gemma Rutter of Surrey County Council’s Youth Service presented the recommendations in this report, which had arisen as a result of a reduction in budget in 2015-16 and a new approach to direct resources to locations of greatest need rather than to where the youth centres had been placed historically. The Youth Service had run a public consultation including two meetings (in Egham and Addlestone) with an online questionnaire in July and August.

Members noted that Egham had a lower priority and would have only one session per week – Gemma explained that other providers would be running activities from the youth centre as SCC focused on the Pooley Green side of Egham, where there was greater need. It was also highlighted that Ottershaw had no provision – Gemma said that some users of the Addlestone youth centre were from Ottershaw. A member asked how success was measured in youth interventions – Jan advised that a new “app” monitoring tool had been introduced to assess progress towards employability – and Jan was asked to investigate any trend data which could be sent to the Committee.

The Local Committee (Runnymede) agreed that:

i) the proposals set out as Option 1 in paragraph 3.1 of the report, as formal guidance for the Community Youth Work Service;

ii) that the Senior Practitioner, in consultation with the Practice Lead officer (West) and chairman of the Youth Task Group, may adjust the services offer to meet the needs of young people as they change.