It prides itself on being one of the most youthful cities in Europe, where almost a third of the population is under the age of 20 and nearly 40% under 25.
But Birmingham’s youth services could be stripped back to just 23 staff members – less than half its current headcount – and its 16 youth centres are at risk of closing under proposals published by the city council on Monday.
The business plan would “have a shattering effect” on young people, according to the Save Birmingham Youth Service campaign group (SBYS), made up of staff and volunteers who work in youth services.
“It’s almost like being kicked in the stomach. We weren’t expecting whole chunks of people to be wiped out,” said a spokesperson for the group, who asked not to be named. “It’s so sad to see things being dismantled around you. Yes it’s about people’s jobs and livelihoods, but first and foremost it’s about the young people.
“We should have a flagship youth service that other cities want to copy. It’s heartbreaking.”
The council’s plans would more than halve the youth services headcount from 67 members to 23, and focus more on targeted intervention than universal provision, as council leaders seek to cut the authority’s budget by £376m after it declared effective bankruptcy last year.
The youth support worker team, of which there are 37 members, would be “deleted”, while senior youth workers would be reduced from nine to four.
The plan says “an element” of youth physical space would be maintained, but the council said third parties interested in taking on any youth centre buildings were invited to “express interest”. SBYS said it was sceptical that any “purpose-built centres” would remain.
“With the scale of youth service jobs they’re talking about cutting, there can only be at most a handful of centres left afterwards,” said a Green party councillor, Julien Pritchard. “For a young city to effectively destroy its youth service like this is outrageous.”
He said the youth centre in the south Birmingham estate of Druids Heath, which he represents, was a lifeline for young people living in one of the most deprived areas in the country.
“I have had so many letters from young people asking the council not to disrupt their youth centre, and that really rang it home to me how important it was to them. It’s young people who are going to be made to suffer when they haven’t done anything wrong.”
Birmingham struggles with high unemployment rates, particularly among young people, with a higher than average number of 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training.
Mashkura Begum, the chair of charity-run community centre Saathi House, which runs an oversubscribed after-school club in Birmingham five days a week, said: “There is huge demand and huge strain on our resources. We’re the youngest city in Europe and we already had a thin service after a decade of austerity.
“So this latest news of the council youth service being almost disbanded is heartbreaking for the city. It’s creating a ticking timebomb of young people who don’t feel valued and knock-on effects with mental health issues and crime.”
The West Midlands police area, of which Birmingham makes up a large part, had the highest rate of knife crime offences in England and Wales in 2023, and youth workers have expressed fears that victims and perpetrators are getting younger.
Last week, the country’s youngest knife murderers, who were 12 years old when they stabbed a man to death in nearby Wolverhampton, were sentenced to a minimum term of eight and a half years in prison.
“It’s like we’re waiting a couple of years for nine- and 10-year-olds to be doing it, and then everyone is going to be shocked again,” said Teswal White, the founder of the Serious Youth Violence Network based in the city.
“It seems like no one cares until problems happen, until things go wrong. And then people start asking, what happened to those youth workers? The government are talking about how they’re going to reduce knife crime over the next 10 years but in the same breath, at a local level, youth services are disappearing.”
Sue Harrison, the city council’s strategic director of children and families, said: “Consultation has commenced on a redesign of the council’s youth service aimed at creating a service model that is sustainable and provides a consistent approach to youth services across the city that is more aligned with other services working with young people.”
She added that any proposals involving staff reductions “can be difficult”, and staff had been signposted to receive support and would be invited to a one-on-one discussion as part of the consultation process.
