Agenda item

M Smith updated the forum on the decision made by Leicestershire County Council to dramatically scale back the amount of Early Help funding available for 2015/16 and move to a central commissioning model. This means that no amount of Early Help funding will be provided to OWBC in the new financial year for use in commissioning projects for young people. Leicestershire County Council will commission ‘core projects’, such as counselling schemes, directly in the Borough based on needs identified through the Youth Service.

M Smith went on to explain that the underspend from OWBC’s 2014/15 allocation of Early Help funding is primarily made up of funds remaining from 2013/14 which will not be reclaimed by Leicestershire County Council. This money, approx. £3,200.00, has been ring fenced for use in funding ‘high impact’ and ‘targeted’ youth projects within the Borough; at present it is likely that this money will be used to further develop diversionary activities around the Junction Road area due to the high number of ASB incidents being reported from there. The underspend available to carry forward may increase if any of the on-going Early Help projects, all due to finish by the end of March 2014, report an underspend from their allocated monies.

The Early Help update moved on to reference the Quarter 3 report provided to members as part of the agenda pack. M Smith referenced the ‘Project Status’ section of the report and informed members that all finished projects had achieved an ‘excellent’ rating and that all on-going projects were also on-track to do so. The opportunity to raise any questions generated by the report was then given to members.

Members queried the ‘Output’ table on page 8 of the Quarter 3 report as the numbers cited in the gender and age breakdowns do not tally to the number given as the ‘total number of young people engaged in project’ for the 2013/14 period. M Smith clarified that during that period ‘PAYP’ monies, as Early Help used to be known, was used to fund two community events where it was not possible to provide a breakdown of the age and gender of those attending. The total number of young people engaged reflects the known number of young people attending projects funded through PAYP and the estimated number of young people attending the community events. A footnote will be added to the Quarter 4 report to clarify this.

Members also queried the ‘Funding Allocation by Participant Age’ graph on page 11 of the Quarter 3 report. Specifically members wished to know if there was a reason that the majority of young people (61%) participating in Early Help funded projects were aged 11 – 15. M Smith explained that very few of the funded projects specifically targeted the 11 – 15 age range and that the majority of them focused on 11 – 19 (or 10 – 25 with learning difficulties or disabilities); M Smith speculated, without having the census data readily available to confirm, that the population of young people in the communities in which the Early Help projects are sited is predominantly aged 11 – 15.