The Chair welcomed Mark Newman, to give an update on youth provision in the local area.

Mark informed the forum that the service had been asked to make savings of £150,000 and that a report was approved by Cabinet last year on this, recommending the following four centres to be commissioned out:

• Mill Lane Fire Station
• West Kirby Youth Club
• Eastham Youth Club
• Shaftesbury

Mill Lane was currently being prepared using youth capital + funding. On completion the ground floor and outbuilding will be used for provision and the upper floor will be used as offices for the Fire service. There will be a six night a week project for Liscard, including Duke of Edinburgh Award Centre (2 nights); Youth Arts/Theatre; Response (advice, guidance service currently being run from Argyle Street in Birkenhead); Café/bistro/drop-in area. There will be two full-time outreach teams in the Liscard/Seacombe area (there was previously one worker covering the whole of Wallasey).

Contacta Bus – work was taking place with the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Team to go to where issue area and work with young people e.g. young people congregating at Macdonalds were approached and it was explained how they were affecting the area. The young people agreed to move to the seating area nearby and went on to help out at an old people’s home – this was a very positive outcome.

Positive activities for young people – the funding targeted for young people with ASB has been top-sliced to improve what is already existing in the area, and partners had been invited to say what improvements they would like to see.

Communications – district provider groups were being developed to help share good practice, talk to each other and identify need.

The Chair thanked Mark Newman for his update and the following questions / issues were raised:

1.  Carole Thomas – what was the district providers group?

A. Mark Newman – the Council became the lead agency of a group to put a Wirral wide bid together covering all projects across Wirral.

2.  Dave Hanlon – what was happening at youth centres such as Wallasey YMCA and the Allendale?

A. Mark Newman – YMCA was included as part of the district activity and the youth services within the centre are run by the YMCA not the Council -this will continue in the future. He added that the Council had run youth clubs from the YMCA and were striving to build a strong relationship with the association. The Chair confirmed that the YMCA did not fall within the Council’s remit and that the Allendale Centre was not owned by the Council.

3.  Councillor Karen Hayes – how do the youth clubs find out about available funding?

A. Mark Newman – confirmed that funding was advertised through the Youth Service, in the Wirral Globe and on the Council website. The Youth Opportunity/Capital Fund was still ongoing and the District Fund was granted for two years.

Dave Hale – what amount of funds are available?

A. Mark Newman confirmed the following funding amounts:

o  Youth Opportunities Fund, £20,000 maximum could be applied for.

o  Youth Capital Fund - no upper limit

o  District Fund - £73,000 per district was awarded

4.  Wendy Sheen – will a report be produced at the end of the two year project to show how the funding was used and when will this be?

A. Mark Newman – monitoring systems are put in place by the contracts team and a report will be provided to them. Mark Camborne added that some of the projects are time bound, and that the Performance Management section would report on this, and that a written position statement / progress report could be provided to the forum in about six months time.

5.  Joseph Lee – when is the youth facility at the Fire Station due to open?

A. Tony Mooney – the building works were due to be completed by the end of March 2010, the rooms were ready and set up and the funding has to be committed and spent by the end of March.

Tony Forder – raised concern that if regular money was not committed to this then the project could fail after several years, and asked if there was any guarantee that the facility would be financed by the Council?

A. Mark Newman - there was funding for three years for the hubs, and will provide better staffed central facilities, as there will be two full-time outreach teams in the Wallasey district – including Leasowe and Moreton Youth Clubs. If can show good provision then we will be in a good position to apply for further funding.

Tony Mooney added that the Fire service are committed to the partnership, and are underwriting the heating / lighting etc., and there is a 20 year lease on the building. The risks would be down to funding salaries, but the Council will be committing to this by pulling things together on site and improving the level of the facility, as well as allowing other providers to use the facility.

Minute Decision:

Resolved that: –

(i) Mark Newman be thanked for his update

(ii) Mark Camborne to arrange for written position statement / progress report on the District Fund be provided for the October 2010 forum