Agenda item

Mr M Hill, Cabinet Member, Customer and Communities, Ms A Slaven, Director of Service Improvement and Mr J Turner, Assistant Head of Youth Service have been invited to attend the meeting between 11.45am and 12.15pm to answer Members’ questions on a specific aspect of this item relating to the Youth Service.

Mr M Hill, Cabinet Member, Customer and Communities, Ms A Slaven, Director of Service Improvement, Mr J Turner, Assistant Head of Youth Service and Mr K Tilson, Head of Finance, Customer and Communities were present for this item.

(1) Mr Cowan, who had requested the call in, explained that his local youth centre raised funds that could then be reinvested, for example in subsidising day trips for young people from deprived areas who otherwise would not be able to go. There were youth centres across the county that were efficiently run and generated income for the benefit of the young people they served, and Mr Cowan questioned what incentive they would have to raise these additional funds if they would be taken away and put in a central reserve. He went onto explain that youth centres, including in his area, had been asked if money had been ear-marked for specific projects yet this had still been taken away, and therefore questioned the purpose of asking them.

(2) Mr Hill explained that the purpose of the exercise was primarily financial tidying up. During the previous twenty years the youth centres had maintained separate bank accounts, with money raised from letting out KCC buildings kept distinct from that raised through other charitable activities. It had since been pointed out by Finance that these separate KCC bank accounts were not permitted. Underspends would normally be rolled into a central reserve, but Mr Hill had negotiated with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support and the Cabinet that the underspend be retained within the Youth Service.

(3) Responding to a question about whether this process had already occurred and whether there had been a formal decision on the Forward Plan, Mr Tilson stated that there had not been a formal decision. He explained that the youth centres had been rolling their underspends into reserves when they were part of Education, but that accounting legislation only permitted schools to roll forward any income generated during the year.

(4) The Chairman asked for clarification of why the decision to create a Youth Centre reserve had not been a Key Decision, since it was likely to affect a significant amount of people, and some youth centres served more than one electoral division. Mr Hill explained that the situation was an anomaly that had built up over a number of years, and when he discovered that it would be illegal to allow it to continue he had no choice but to take the decision. Mr Sass also advised Members that, in his opinion, it did not constitute a Key Decision.

(5) On the question of whether Local Members and young people were informed that the changes would be occurring, Mr Turner responded that this had not happened, mainly because there was no longer a management committee at every youth project but that it was the Council’s money, raised through the hiring of its premises. 

(6) Replying to an inquiry regarding the length of time that youth centres had to use up their underspends in advance of the monies being clawed back on 31 March, Mr Tilson explained that the process had been ongoing throughout the previous year and clarified that not all of the youth centres’ unused funds would have been reclaimed, due to the fact that money could have originated from external grant funding or pre-existing financial commitments (rather than ‘ear-marking’). Mr Turner added that the underspends has been discussed over the previous three to four years and there had consistently been a sum of around £500k rolled forward each year. Since not every youth centre was able to make as significant a sum from letting their premises as others, this initiative would also allow the Youth Service to look more strategically at the use of the funds and target areas of deprivation.

(7) In response to a concern that youth workers would no longer have an incentive to go out into communities and bring people into KCC premises to generate additional income, Ms Slaven stated that youth workers were committed to young people and would therefore continue to fund raise.

(8) The Chairman referred to three questions that had been sent in by email. Two of these questions referred to the discouraging effect of monies being reclaimed from youth centres, with the third asking where the money to maintain the buildings would come from if it was now going to be rolled into a reserve. Mr Turner responded that there were at least 17 youth workers who were not based in a youth centre and did not have the ability to let the premises and this could be seen as inequitable. Despite that fact, they still managed to raise money for local activities for young people.

(9) Responding to a request for more detail on how the two year programme of commissioning of youth services would work, Mr Hill explained that the programme to transform youth services would be unveiled later that year, and it would involve commissioning services from the voluntary sector while building capacity in the voluntary sector so it could take a greater role in youth work in Kent. The dedicated reserve would help enable the implementation of this new model.

(10) Mr Tilson explained that each youth centre was given a contribution to its running costs each year, but they still had an incentive to generate income since this does not cover the whole cost. However the more expensive maintenance element had been removed since this was now covered by the Directorate’s capital programme

(11) In reply to a question asking how it was possible to be accurate about the sources of money held in youth centre bank accounts, Mr Tilson explained that the finance team held records of which grants had been received and external funders would also keep track of how grant money was spent. Where there were funds committed to projects in the first few months of the financial year these would be honoured. It was explained that there was a separate funding stream which had been allocated for additional monies for summer programmes. Responding to follow-up questions about whether there was time for applications to be submitted and approved and whether young people could be involved in the process, Ms Slaven and Mr Turner explained that Kent Youth Opportunities Fund applications were still being received, and that young people were involved either through the Kent Youth County Council or through being trained as assessors in the bid selection processes.

RESOLVED: that the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee:

(12) Thank Mr Hill, Ms Slaven, Mr Turner and Mr Tilson for attending the meeting and answering Members’ questions.

(13) Make no comments on the proposal.