Agenda item

Excerpt of minutes from meeting held on 9 January 2012

The Chair of the Social & Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Regan, was invited to speak in support of the recommendations.

She explained that at the meeting of the Social & Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on the 9 January 2012 the Committee had discussed ‘Anti-Social Behaviour Update – Focus on impact of youth centre closures in the Borough’.  Members of the Committee had been concerned by the lack of available figures from the Police regarding the link between the closure of youth facilities to any rise in antisocial behaviour (ASB) committed by young people and the suggestion that it would be another 12 months before the figures could be obtained and compiled.  Youth facilities had closed in April 2011 and a further 12 month wait for the formulation of statistics identifying ASB linked to the closures was unacceptable to Members.

Members were also concerned that the safeguarding of young people previously carried out by the youth service was no longer being undertaken.  CCP were attempting to capture and record social issues but with many youth centres now being run by volunteers rather than individuals with appropriate training, there was a risk that issues wouldn’t be identified. Without having access to meaningful figures there was no way of knowing whether issues were worsening. 

Councillor Regan urged Cabinet to accept the recommendations and attain some answers. 

The Leader recognised the concerns of the Social & Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee and invited the relevant portfolio holder, Cabinet Member Housing & Safety, to comment.

Cabinet Member Housing & Safety thanked the Committee for the recommendations, which she welcomed.  Cabinet shared the concerns relating to youth centre closures in the town and had set aside £50k in the budget to address some of the gaps. 

Members should be assured that the newly formed Positive Life Partnership was also taking this issue seriously.  Whilst it was early days for the Partnership following a recent restructure, work was in progress to develop action cards, two of which were ‘ASB’ and ‘Youth’.  CCP would lead on the Youth action card to ensure that it was populated with the relevant information, but the process was at such an early stage that the Cabinet Member was not in a position to provide any further details. 

She had raised the issue of ASB data informally with the Police representative on the Partnership.  It has been explained that the information was being recorded but having recently changed the way in which ASB was reported, it was not yet possible to draw comparisons and this was the likely reason for having been told that the data would not be available for another 12 months.

Cabinet Member Housing & Safety confirmed that she was happy to accept the recommendations and was equally happy to discuss the matter further outside of the meeting and take forward actions where possible. 

Cabinet Member Corporate Services explained that the somewhat abrupt closure of the youth centre in Oakley, his ward, paired with the loss of the Police Station had caused anxiety but experience at this stage was that there had been no increase in ASB.  This was not to say however, that there would not be issues in the future, ASB had reduced to such a low level because of years of work with communities.  He reminded Members that information relating to incidences of self harming, drug and alcohol abuse, etc, were available in Maiden, a resource available to all Members. 

Cabinet Member Housing & Safety felt that the Cheltenham Safeguarding Board should be made aware of the concerns raised by the Committee. She proposed that CCP should be invited to make a presentation to the new Overview and Scrutiny Committee once the new arrangements were in place or alternatively, a working group could be convened to consider the matter further.

Upon a vote it was unanimously

RESOLVED that the recommendations of the Social & Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee regarding the lack of data on the impact of the reduction in funding for general/universal youth provision in the town with a particular focus on incidences of antisocial behaviour be approved, including;

1. The issue be raised directly with Gloucestershire Police;

2. To work with the CSP Positive Lives Partnership to address the wider issue of lack of youth provision in the town, particularly in terms of coordinating new youth projects being undertaken.