We’ve been working hard to commission new youth services for Ludlow after Shropshire Council decided to make its youth staff redundant to save money. We’ve been allocated just £10,850 a year for services and even that is not guaranteed beyond March 2017.
We’ve never been happy with the commissioning process, which has been too centralised and bureaucratic, with ridiculously high overheads. But we have worked hard to ensure that we get something in place for September for the sake of the young people of this town.
Our invitation to tender has received no bids at all and there is every prospect of having no youth services in Ludlow from September onwards. Tracey Huffer and I are so concerned about the problems with the commissioning process, we have referred the matter to the council’s auditors.
Meanwhile, we need an emergency plan to get youth services in place within four weeks. We have called an urgent meeting of the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee, which is responsible for commissioning, and the Ludlow Youth Partnership tomorrow. The aim is to find a way forward. Senior commissioners from Shropshire Council will attend.
have just read today’s news which identifies that with local authority services and health services slashed to the bone the main service to mentally ill people comes from the police force!! Wonder whether this is the answer for young people….. just joking!
The more I see this austerity affect more and more especially the very heart of the community it makes me wonder why the electorate returned a party dedicated to the dismantling of the very infrastructure upon which the poor and very vulnerable in our society rely.
In my eyes the adage runs “the mark of any society, country, government is how they treat the most helpless and vulnerable in their midst”.
This administration is failing miserably. Not surprising as they are all near millionaires who went to public school and have never felt or experienced the true despair of the poorer and neediest in our society.