Participation Works

The Department for Communities and Local Government has announced the end of a ring-fenced grant for the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds.

Since 2006 local authorities have received a specific grant for young people to apply for and manage, in order to promote the development of new youth projects and facilities led by young people. The Funds were a key tenet of the previous Government’s policy of giving young people a say in the way in which money is spent locally on children and young people’s services.

The change means that, while local authorities will receive the money for this financial year, they will be under no obligation to allocate it to the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds, or even to allocate it to youth services in general. Funding for play provision and the “Think Family” grant will also no longer be ring-fenced.

Responding to the announcement, Alex Delaney, Chair of the British Youth Council said:
‘These grants will support many youth participation projects as well as services, but they are all based on young people’s views, so we are very concerned about the impact on youth participation that removing the ring-fence will have. Whilst young people are frequently consulted by local authorities through their local youth council, a real indicator of empowerment is whether you have a say in distributing a budget’.

Funding for the Youth Opportunity Fund will be reviewed in the planned comprehensive spending review in the autumn.

The announcement comes alongside a £311 million cut to general funding given to local authorities to spend on children and young people’s services and education. Further cuts have also been made to grants supporting community cohesion, preventing extremism and for improvements to Gypsy and Traveller sites.

Read the DCLG announcement on the funds and BYCs response.

Thu, 01/07/2010 - 09:40