Witnesses
Cllr Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children and Families,
Lifelong Learning
Cllr Maureen Attewell, Deputy Cabinet Member Children and
Families, Lifelong Learning
Jackie Clementson, Assistant Director – Early
Help, Youth Justice & Adolescent Service
Dave McLean, Service Manager – Early Help,
Youth Justice & Adolescent Service
Elaina Phillips, Commissioning Officer –
Early Help, Youth Justice & Adolescent Service
Judith
Brooks, Head
of Children & Young People and Deputy CEO - YMCA East Surrey
Stuart
Kingsley, Family Services and Youth Work Manager - YMCA East
Surrey
Melissa
Salisbury, Hale Community Centre Manager
Jo Goodhew,
Hale Youth Centre Team Leader
Key points
made in the discussion:
- The Hale
Youth Centre
Team Leader informed that the centre serves 45-50 young people aged
11-19 in eight sessions a week, providing a safe space in which
they can talk to a trusted adult. The building is leased for free
from Surrey County Council (SCC) who maintain it. They could not
run without volunteers. There are also paid staff employed to
secure funding, which comes from National Lottery and Waverley
Borough Council. Aside from SCC’s holiday activity camps for
those on free school meals, the centre runs term-time only, due to
funding rather than staff availability, which can lead to distress
in the summer holidays when young people feel deserted.
- The YMCA
Surrey’s Youth Work Manager told the Committee they deliver
20 sessions a week in Reigate and Banstead, with SCC offering a
peppercorn rent and paying for utilities. They had secured Safer
Streets and National Lottery funding, would not be able to do their
work without the building, and report back quarterly to SCC.
Recruiting was a barrier.
- Asked how
provision differed from before a reorganisation of youth work four
years ago, the Service Manager
reassured Members that none of their 27 buildings were being closed
or knocked down; the Council was looking to enhance the work of the
third sector and not throw them out. A couple of buildings were
currently closed for repairs. The
Commissioning Officer explained that 14 of the 27 buildings had
been leased to interested community organisations or third sector
providers. The other 13, described as retained youth centres, had
no interested hosts and still sat with SCC; they were fully
utilised by police and health partners and managed by a business
property support team. Some of the leaseholders had struggled to
deliver their contractual terms in the financial landscape, meaning
ten of the 14 buildings being leased
out were standing empty much of the time, apart from perhaps one or
two evenings a week. Meanwhile, SCC paid for the utilities and had
statutory services like family centres that needed places to go,
but the Service Level Agreements (SLA) meant they were not allowed
to use their buildings. Leaseholders were able to generate
rental income to invest in support for local families, though in
many cases were not doing so.
- A Member asked the
Service how it was collecting information on which of the 14
buildings were working well. The Committee heard that the SLA,
inherited by the current team, was not sufficiently effective to
ask for monitoring data and provided no means of enforcement if
leaseholders did not provide KPIs quarterly or meet with the
Council the required two times a year. The five-year leases, due to
end in 2025, allowed for termination of the lease should providers
not improve, but included no criteria for what constitutes
improvement.
- The Service Manager
explained that SCC’s budget for its youth offer remained
£1.2m, the same as in 2019 before the transformation. It was
spent on buildings and more money was needed to enable them to run
the service as they would want. The Assistant Director said this
would be as a mixed economy, working in partnership with the
voluntary sector who have a real understanding of the communities
they work in. Asked if the Service believed the intended changes
had been successfully delivered, the Commissioning Manager said
needs had changed due to Covid, they want a blended model, and they
wanted to improve relationships.
- Members suggested a
workshop for the Committee to understand what provision was
available, with information provided in a paper in
advance.
Actions
1)
Assistant Director – Early Help, Youth Justice &
Adolescent Service to provide a list of the locations of the 27
buildings (centres referenced in paragraph 8) and how many of them
are currently being used for youth work.
2)
Provide the Committee,
ahead of the workshop and confidentially if necessary, with the
template Service Level Agreement for third sector providers leasing
youth centre buildings.
Resolved:
A
workshop would be arranged with a paper circulated
beforehand.
Cllr
Bernie Muir and Cllr Bob Hughes left the meeting at 1pm.
Break at
13:00, meeting resumed at 13:15.