Kent Youth centres face closure after KCC shifts funding

The councils wants to invest more in Family Hubs, which they say will provide more integration of services.

Transcript

00:00 Is that agreed?

00:01 Everyone in agreement here at Kent County Council as the Cabinet approved plans for

00:05 11 family hubs that aim to replace existing support services in the county.

00:10 The Department of Education is providing more than £11m in grant money over a three-year

00:15 period to support these hubs.

00:18 More than 60 youth services could be left without funding as the Cabinet also decided

00:23 not to renew contracts with existing service providers.

00:26 The Cabinet member in charge of the consultation into family hubs says they will bring this

00:30 pre-existing support together into one place.

00:34 By integrating more fully public health, health services and family support services, family

00:41 hub sites will provide effectively a one-stop shop for children, young people and families

00:47 and community outreach will add to that by doing pretty much what it says on the tin.

00:52 So what does KCC's decision actually mean?

00:56 Well I've been down to this community centre in Gravesend to find out from the people who

01:00 will be impacted most.

01:02 They're not necessarily going to be run by professionally qualified youth workers but

01:05 people with a skill set, this is KCC's wording, a skill set in working with either children

01:12 or young people because of the range of ages that they'll be working with.

01:16 Young people deserve professionally qualified youth workers.

01:18 You know, that's what we're trained to do.

01:20 We're trained specifically to work with those young people and that's what they deserve,

01:25 that's what they need.

01:26 I'm quite devastated to be honest.

01:28 This is like five years running now that I've been here and just to watch KCC make this

01:35 decision so easily without even coming to see a gig and what happens here, I think I

01:40 feel quite devastated.

01:41 Yeah, I don't know where I'd be without a gig.

01:46 I can't even imagine not having this.

01:48 It's been such a huge part of our lives.

01:51 This is our second home, our second family and without this my daughter wouldn't be a

01:57 professional performer that she is today.

02:00 My other daughter would have never received the counselling that she needed to get through

02:05 hardships of life that teenagers in 2024 have to go through more and more every single day.

02:13 Gifted young generation in Gravesend now face the £100,000 shortfall in the money they

02:18 need to continue and will likely be forced to close when contracts end in April next

02:23 year.

02:24 We did reach out to Sue Chandler for an interview but she only responded with this statement.

02:29 We understand that this decision is disappointing for some young people and youth services but

02:34 KCC is committed to continuing to run its youth provision through a mix of activity

02:38 at the family hub buildings and outreach locations.

02:42 Oliver Leeds and the Saks reporting for KMTV.

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