To receive a presentation on the Hampshire
County Council Youth Consultation from Mr. Ian Langley, Strategic Lead for the
Supporting (Troubled) Families Programme.
Minutes:
The Panel welcomed Mr. Ian Langley, Youth Support Services Board Member
of Hampshire County Council (HCC), who attended the meeting to report on the
impending Youth Support Services consultation. Mr. Langley advised that a
service consultation had been held in 2014 on the
Youth Support Services, but this had not been completed. Subsequently, the
Executive Lead Member had agreed that financial support for 2015/16 would
remain unchanged with the majority of commissioned Youth Support Service
providers receiving a twelve month extension to their
grants. The new consultation would start in November 2015 and the period prior
to the start date would be used to consult with
district and borough councils and district groups to inform them of the
requirements of the consultation.
It was noted that further savings needed to be
achieved in 2016/17 and the shape and delivery of Youth Support Services would
need to undergo further transformation. However, it was important to ensure
that vulnerable young people still received the service they required and HCC
welcomed the views of what was considered important in
each local area across the County. By consulting with district and borough
councils, prior to the consultation, it was hoped that
there would be no surprises when the consultation documents were released. In
preparation, HCC needed to consider challenging the traditional ways of
working, working together with partners to offer the best possible service and
to keep young people at the centre of its thinking.
The Panel was advised that engagement events
had taken place with key stakeholders and providers in April 2015; following
this, local engagement events had taken place in Hart/Rushmoor, East Hampshire,
Havant, Fareham, Eastleigh, New Forest and Test Valley. In addition,
discussions had been held with groups associated with
the early help offer; these included children, young people and their families.
Emerging themes from these discussions had been identified,
including the need for frequent communication with the voluntary sector to give
them sufficient notice to retain staff to deliver current services and to plan
for any changes. It was also felt important to ensure
focus on locality and the needs of the local providers; every area had
different needs and requirements.
Mr. Langley reported that the next steps would be to continue the dialogue,
and jointly consider the needs of each locality, identify any gaps and how they
could be overcome. It was also important for each
local authority to ask “what can we bring to the
table?” Consideration would also need to be given to
future delivery and commissioning models, examples of which could be:
·
a
grants based model,
·
a
third sector partner, or
·
to run something through the local Children’s
Partnership, which in Rushmoor was a very active and productive group.
Members were asked to consider a number of
things, for example; any groups that would benefit from advanced consultation
on the review before the formal consultation began and any key issues, gaps and
best practice in the locality. The Panel noted that the consultation would
start in early November, 2015 with the outcomes to be
reported on in March, 2016.
In response to a question, it was reported that
the services to be reviewed covered children and young people aged 0-19. Most
young people were referred to the services or attended
through outreach projects and the emphasis had been on targeting the
right young people with the reducing funds available. It was
noted that the overall budget for Hampshire had been in the region of £1
million although the new proposed figure had yet to be determined.
A discussion was held on the pressures on the
voluntary sector to provide services with less funding. Mr. Langley advised
that a lot of work had been carried out in advance
with organisations to pre-warn them of the proposed reductions and to allow
them to start preparing for the future at this early stage. Partnership working
and best practice had also been encouraged.
The Head of Community and Environmental Services agreed to circulate the
presentation recently considered by the Rushmoor Local Children’s Partnership,
which would help inform the Council’s response to the consultation.
The Panel noted that, locally, Rushmoor Voluntary Services had been part
of a similar consultation process around Community Voluntary Services and was
now working closely with similar organisations in both Hart and Basingstoke to
provide improved value and achieve the savings required by HCC.
It was noted that Mr. Langley would keep the
Panel informed on the progress of the consultation if required and further
discussion on the way forward would be held at the next mid cycle meeting.
The Chairman thanked Mr. Langley for his presentation.