Youth funding 'a dog's breakfast'

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Government grants for youth projects aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour are "wasteful, inefficient and bureaucratic," a watchdog has said.

The Audit Commission said youth workers could spend up to a third of their time trying to secure funding from any one of seven government departments.

Commission chairman Michael O'Higgins called the system "a dog's breakfast".

But the government said the report ignored the real effort it had made to help young people.

Publishing its report, Tired of Hanging Around, the Audit Commission said more than £113m of public money would be saved each year if just one-in-10 young offenders was kept out of further trouble.

'Thwarted'

The commission said sport and leisure projects could make a big difference to young people's lives, but it found a number of obstacles in the way:

<ul class="bulletList"><li>On average, schemes are funded from three different sources, each with its own application system and monitoring criteria </li><li>In some cases, the administrative cost of bidding for grants actually exceeds the amount of funding being sought </li><li>Funding is often short-term and with no guarantee of renewal </li><li>Councils and other bodies such as the police may not co-ordinate their applications and can find themselves competing for the same funds </li></ul>

Mr O'Higgins said: "Prevention is better than cure, but project leaders are thwarted in their attempts to keep young people out of trouble by wasteful, inefficient and bureaucratic funding arrangements for diversionary projects."

The commission recommended simplifying the system by pooling funding pots from different government departments.

It also said: "Young people want activities that are cheap, cool and easy to get to, but they are rarely asked for their input."

Therefore, projects must be targeted at the right age group, organised at the right place and time, and properly advertised, it added.

Youth bus

The commission highlighted a number of particularly successful examples.

After years of calling the police to deal with vandalism and anti-social behaviour, Gateshead Golf Club changed its approach and offered young people the chance to take up the sport for free.

Nearly 100 young people are now involved - some good enough to become professionals - and the problems that plagued the club have stopped. They provide the kids with positive role models Lynne Blackburn, youth worker

Elsewhere, in Burnley, one scheme uses a double-decker bus - complete with free internet access and games consoles - as a mobile youth club.

Lynne Blackburn, who runs the scheme, told the BBC News website that young people were involved from the beginning.

"The police were also very proactive, but they were talking about buying a building somewhere in the town. We said the problem with that is that young people are quite territorial. With the bus we can get over that.

"A lot of our kids are very hard to reach. Some have Asbos, some are tagged. But our youth workers on board the bus are absolutely brilliant and they provide the kids with positive role models."

The government spends about £1.6bn a year on youth programmes.

Children's minister Beverly Hughes said: "This government has done more than any other in recent times to provide positive activities and sporting opportunities for young people.

"To ignore this - as this report does - undermines the hard work of many young people, youth workers and volunteers across the country.

"There are, of course, challenges around local delivery in some areas, but we are already addressing many of those highlighted in the report including the major concern about places to go for young people."