YOUTH SERVICES AT RISK -FORMAL CHALLENGE TO CABINET DECISION

8.12.42pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 14th Sep 2007

Liberal Democrats on the County Council have issued a formal challenge to the appointment of a private company to manage the young peoples' services in Gloucestershire.

Last Wednesday the Tories agreed in private to a process to integrate young peoples' services and hand over their management in an unprecedented contract to Prospects, a private, national organisation.

But the Liberal Democrats say there has been insufficient planning.

Cllr Charmian Sheppard, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Children and Young People and former cabinet member, said:

"The reorganisation of young people's services is about as important as a County Council decision can get, but the Tories have made up their minds without considering what they want for Gloucestershire's young people. The materials supporting this decision are only concerned with managerial arrangements, not the inevitable impacts on young people or outcomes for our youth services. The Tories have felt their way in the dark to the button and pressed it without knowing what it does!"

The Liberal Democrats have "called-in" the decision which will require one of the Council's scrutiny bodies to reconsider it. The scrutiny committee may then make recommendations for the revision of the decision.

Cllr Jeremy Hilton, Liberal Democrat group leader, said:

"The Conservative cabinet has awarded this contract with no strategic vision of how they want the council's services to young people to develop. They are privatising the management of the service in the hope that services to young people will get better, but there is little evidence in the cabinet papers to suggest this is the case. We have called in the decision because we remain unconvinced that the Tories have done their homework on this contract. The quality of the service we provide to young people is vital to their success in life. That is why we want this decision to be scrutinised before it proceeds further."

The details of the Liberal Democrat group's objections are exempt from public scrutiny. The Liberal Democrat group has requested permission from the Council's monitoring officer to make this debate public. A further statement will be made once the Monitoring Officer's decision is known.