100 Shropshire youth workers to be made redundant
More than 100 youth workers in Shropshire have been told they will be made redundant next spring.
Shropshire Council is aiming to save about £140,000 – equivalent to a 15 per cent budget cut – and about one-third of the county's youth workers will take redundancy from April 1 next year.
From April the council will no longer directly deliver youth services, but instead commission them from other providers.
The council has said no formal consultation has started yet with staff and they hope jobs will be available to them from other providers.
Gwilym Butler, cabinet member for culture and leisure at Shropshire Council, said: "This new approach will also ensure greater involvement of local young people and their communities in shaping the local offer.
"Local joint committees (LJCs) will be responsible for commissioning youth services in their area – and the council is currently out to tender for a youth activities partner to provide support for LJCs and the organisations providing youth activities from this date.
"At a staff briefing last Thursday, our youth workers were given an update about this work and were informed that the implementation of the new youth activities commissioning model will result in their contract of employment with Shropshire Council coming to an end.
"April or May 2015 was given as an indicative timescale for this, but staff were also told that this was subject to review.
"I must stress that no formal consultation has started yet with staff, and our hope is that many of them will find employment opportunities with the organisations that will be commissioned at a local level."
Some council members are concerned the cuts will harm the service.
Tracey Huffer, chairman of the Ludlow Youth Partnership and Shropshire councillor for Ludlow East, said the council is failing to see the bond of trust built up between youth workers and young people.
She said: "That takes years to build up but only days to lose.
"Of course some youth workers will transfer to whatever organisations Shropshire Council funds. But not all will.
"Many are part-time, just a few hours a week. Just the uncertainty and disruption will cause youth workers to drop out because they will feel that Shropshire Council no longer values them. In my view it doesn't value them.
"They help turn problem youngsters round and encourage them to use their youthful energies constructively. We have young people in Ludlow helping us organise the annual youth festival in Wheeler Park and the firework display on Gallows Bank. We couldn't get that level of engagement without youth workers."
