Bristol City Council has denied trade union claims that huge budget cuts will mean redundancies for youth workers and loss of job security for hundreds of others.
Unison fears that a £400,000 reduction – almost one-fifth – in funding for targeted youth services (TYS), which provide intensive 1-2-1 group sessions and outreach support for thousands of children, will “hit disadvantaged young people the hardest and put jobs at risk in the community sector”. On top of the cutbacks, the union has also been told the local authority wants to move away from commissioned services to a system of grant funding for the youth sector, which the union “strongly opposes” amid concerns staff could be left on fixed-term contracts as money would be available only for specific projects.
The council says the forthcoming Youth Zone will deliver “world-class services” for many youngsters who already receive support, attract £900,000 a year from outside sources to help run it and add about 100 jobs for youth workers. It says the intention in switching from commissioned services to grant funding is to “strengthen the resilience of the sector” and help develop the workforce who support young people in the community but do not have job certainty.
