Youth Justice Plan

Speech by Cllr Zoe Patrick delivered to The Cabinet on Mon 16th May 2005

YOUTH JUSTICE PLAN

Having listened to the debate at Community Safety Scrutiny Committee I was pleased with the areas the committee have asked to be looked at. The health funding issue - the fact that they never put any money into the service certainly needs to be looked at. Indeed, I would suggest that this be taken up with the District Auditor as a matter of concern, because I feel they are certainly not meeting their obligations. Also the training needs of 16-19 year olds which needs to be followed up with the Learning and Skills Council is hugely important if we wish our young people to be skilled for the future.

It is unfortunate (para 4) that the YOS has made considerable reductions in staffing. And as it says in para. 5 this has meant some reductions in performance in comparison with the previous year. Supporting everything said in para. 6 about prevention work and pleased to see this will be strengthened. Also pleased to see the commitment from TVP. However, in view of the success enjoyed I am not sure it is value for money to remove officers for this historical budget deficit. We need to put more money in not less.

Concerned that reading p.46 of the plan we see the current Education Development Manager post has been made redundant. We know that working closely with schools and in particular ensuring regular attendance at school increases the chance of young people maintaining some skills and support, so we hope that this will be closely monitored.