Northampton fights youth cuts
WORKERS, MAR 2006 ISSUE
The new Tory County Council in Northamptonshire is driving through huge cuts in services, which could result in over 1,000 jobs going, as well as the whole of the youth service, a respite care home, posts which support children with special needs in schools and residential homes for the elderly. Unions and user groups around the county have been mobilising for a series of protests since Christmas, and have succeeded in saving some services.
Members of the Community and Youth Workers Union (CYWU) were told on Christmas Eve that the council planned to sack all 197 youth workers and get rid of the youth service. A few pennies would remain for the privatisation of a few projects.
But parents, children and other unions responded well to the call for support by the union, which at very short notice organised a march and rally. These attracted what was described by the Northampton Trades Council as one of the biggest turnouts for a trade union event in the town for many years and what the Regional TUC described as the biggest trade union rally they had addressed in 10 years. Loud cheers came when a call was made to take out an Anti-Social Behaviour Order on a council which is causing mayhem and vandalism.
The council has picked on a non-statutory service, told lies and produced misleading figures to justify its position in relation to the Youth Service. It also knows that the majority of users of the Youth Service are younger than 18 and because there are no elections due in Northamptonshire they are safe to go ahead. This is one reason why the CYWU and TUC call for the voting age to be lowered to 16.
Northampton, 11 February: local people march to defend the youth service Photo: Workers
The council argued that an Ofsted inspection described the Youth Service as unsatisfactory. It did – it said the Council spent too little and that management was poor. But it went on to say that 82% of face-to-face practice by workers was good. It placed weaknesses within the service in the context of historic underspending. For example, the government recommends one youth worker for every 400 young people between the ages of 13-19. If this figure were to be achieved Northamptonshire would need to employ 60 more workers. The government says £100 per young person should be spent on the Youth Service. Northamptonshire spends £50 per head per annum, whereas it is prepared to spend £26,000 for every six months a young person is in youth custody. In reality the Ofsted report is being misconstrued for political purposes to cut essential spending.
The council in fact has robbed money given to it for expenditure on young people and spent it elsewhere. This year's cuts are a case in point. It isn't that they do not have the money, but that they are simply diverting the cash to spend on such important initiatives as flagpoles for every school, getting in private consultants and being seen as a low-spending council. Under Labour control Northamptonshire spent £24 million in one year on consultants. The Tories are simply taking this a step further.
The General Federation of Trade Unions and the TUC have called for a public inquiry into the mad proposals of the county councillors. Even the local Labour MP recognises this attack as a savage blow to the most vulnerable. The CYWU has a record of beating local authorities which have tried similar tactics to demolish the youth service, and does not intend to be beaten on this one. It will be digging in for a very strategic campaign.