Substantial resources available for youth and play services

Published: August 4, 2011

IN response to your July 28 stories, I would point out that both the youth service and play services in Camden will still both be getting substantial resources.

The reason we have to make changes to both services is the lack of government funding.
We have to look at other ways to provide these services and keep as much of what people rely on and value as possible.

The proposals for youth came from the review by Children, Schools and Families and Housing and Adult Social Care. This included extensive consultation for the past two years with young people and providers of the service.

The youth proposals agreed on July 20 at cabinet followed consultation not just with young people but also parents, residents, and colleagues in the voluntary sector. We have worked very closely with partners in the voluntary sector to identify duplication in the same areas. Savings are being made by working with groups that we fund.

Area-based partnerships will be set up to ensure a wide range of activities are provided for young people aged 13 to 19 (up to 25 for those young people with disabilities).

This restructure will make sure young people will still get an excellent service with varied activities, including Camden Summer University.

We are not closing down youth services – sessions are being reprovided. A key consideration has to be safety, which will be taken into account when services relocate to places young people feel safe and comfortable to visit.

On play, at the same July 20 meeting, cabinet agreed to decommission the current service from September 2012 and to protect £1.5million for a brand new play service for children aged four to 12. This decision has since been “called in” to be reconsidered. If the decision goes ahead, this funding will be far more than any other London borough is putting in.

The proposed new service would ensure activities are available across the borough and that our disabled and vulnerable children are prioritised. We would work with schools to develop before- and after-school clubs for all children.

I would also like to clarify your statement that we are not providing a statutory service by cutting play. This is not the case, and we do not have a statutory responsibility directly to provide play.

The reality is that we can no longer do everything we used to, but people need to realise the good news that we are keeping play – it will just be run in a different way.

For details of play see camden.gov.uk/play; and for the summer university cmdn.co.uk
Cllr Larraine Revah
Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families