Youth Service U-turn After Sustained Lib Dem Pressure
Surrey Liberal Democrats have welcomed the lifting of the County's freeze on Youth Service recruitment, highlighted in recent months by County Councillor Diana Smith Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Schools and Learning.
At the beginning of December County Council Officers reacted to massive planned cuts in budget for youth work with the panic cancellation of interviews and a ban on new appointments. Said Diana Smith: "We argued in Full Council a month ago that this harmful freeze should never have been imposed, and had to end. The Tories blamed their Officers, and wouldn't accept the obvious truth that an arbitrary cut-off date leaving some areas, such as Guildford, under half staffed didn't make sense - not to mention the considerable costs and loss of confidence you get when you cancel a recruitment round at the interview stage. And this when for years we've been told a reason for the appalling under-use of Youth Centres is that not enough Youth Workers can be persuaded to work in Surrey."
"Councillors from all the political parties have said for years that our Youth Centres are not properly used, but the Conservative Executive has failed to do anything effective about it." Diana Smith added. "Youth Development staff do great work with some of the youngsters in Surrey who need their support most. But residents are always telling us that 'places to go and things to do' for all young people should have a higher priority. New ways of working need to be found to let this happen. The Youth Development Service itself should be best placed to do this, so long as it is not weakened by unimaginative hard-line Tories with their unwillingness to look for genuine reform and efficiencies, rather than cuts."
Diana concluded: "It's good the Tory Executive has taken notice of the Liberal Democrat call to lift this damaging recruitment ban, though late in the day. I hope it's not too late to improve morale and attract the new staff who are essential to bring about a much-needed change for the better."