Agenda item

Councillor Melvin Wallace, Cabinet member for Culture and Community Engagement, introduced the report

Cabinet was reminded that in the light of the community consultation which had taken place between May and August 2015 the report sought a decision on the Medium Term Financial Savings (MTFS) for the Youth Facilitation and MyPlace teams as from the 2016/17 financial years,

Reasons for the decision:

To achieve the required MTFS savings for the Youth Facilitation Service and for the MyPlace building in Harold Hill.

Other options considered:

The option of not proceeding with delivering the MTFS savings outlined in the report had been considered but rejected on the grounds that the outcome of the community consultation was broadly supportive of the proposals and if not implemented, alternative savings would have to be found elsewhere.

Cabinet:

1.                Noted the outcome of the community consultation on the MTFS proposals that impacted on the Youth Facilitation and MyPlace teams, as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report.

2.                Confirmed that the level of MTFS savings would be £516k per annum for the Youth Facilitation team, as from the 2016/17 financial year and £100k for MyPlace as from the 2017/18 financial year.

3.                Noted that a budget of £250k per annum would be retained to support the work of the Youth Facilitation team and that a net budget of approximately £250k would be retained to deliver services at the MyPlace building.

4.            Confirmed that Housing Revenue Account funding of £100k per annum would be allocated to work with young people living on Council estates where a high percentage of Council tenants lived.

5.            Agreed to officers progressing restructures in both the Youth Facilitation and MyPlace teams, to achieve the required MTFS savings.

6.            Agreed to officers progressing a procurement process that would result in the externalisation of the Youth Facilitation and MyPlace services, once the restructures in both services were implemented.