Listen to thisYouth services are in existential crisis and face oblivion unless they change the way they are funded and take advantage of social investment opportunities, a leading figure in the sector has warned.
Brendan O'Keefe, who established one of the first staff-led youth mutuals in England when Epic Community Interest Company (CIC) took on responsibility for services in Kensington and Chelsea in 2014, said youth services, along with children's centres, are continuing to bear the brunt of ongoing local authority cuts.
He said that, rather than relying on local authority funding, youth services must adapt, and seek out different forms of investment in order to survive, designing themselves around invest-to-save principles and creating new funding models with social investment organisations.
"If spending trends continue as they are, local authorities may sooner or later vacate the youth services arena altogether," he said. "The best of the sector can show a demonstrable link between impact, value for money and diversion from present and future harmful behaviours and by extension, high cost interventions.
"This appears nailed on for a social investment approach based around funding for outcomes and impact. Investment in the sector that pays dividends (literally) proportionate to actual savings accrued has to [be] explored."
According to latest Department for Education section 251 figures published in December, council spending on child protection and children in care services rose by £280m in 2015/16.
However, spending on children's centres fell by £101.5m from 2014/15 to 2015/16, and total spending on youth services was cut by £99.1m.
O'Keefe suggested social investment organisation, and providers and commissioners of youth services should work together to create a "shared risk model" to tackle the current gap in early intervention funding.
He said this would give local authorities an incentive to work in a more innovative way to maintain youth services, rather than relying on a purchaser and provider relationship.
"This will require the youth services sector itself to align with other mainstream professions and their objectives in an explicit manner," said O'Keefe.
"The alternative is oblivion."
Employee-led mutual Epic CIC was created in 2014 to run youth services in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
It generated £2.24 in social value for every £1 spent in employability support to young people in 2015, according to an independent study of its impact.
In addition, for every £1 spent on its serious youth violence programmes, Epic CIC was found to create a total of £3.59 of additional social value.
By Gabriella Jozwiak
27 February 2017
