Shaping the future of services to young people in Allerdale

This week, Cumbria County Council's Local Committee for Allerdale agreed to commission an independent evaluation of its three year Services to Young People Programme. The findings from the evaluation will then be used as a tool to help shape the future of services to young people in Allerdale up until 2007. 

Two years ago the Cumbria Youth Service and Cumbria Careers joined together to form the new Cumbria Connexions Service. Meanwhile the Local Committee still had a responsibility for administering the remaining Services to Young People budget which resulted in an agreed three year operational plan. The main focus of this plan was to support the voluntary youth sector by providing an annual youth grants scheme, a summer youth activities fund, operate a service level agreement with Young Cumbria and to directly employ a Neighbourhood Development Officer (Youth) along with four part time Area Youth Development Workers and five part time Trainee Youth Workers. 

This team now work in the four distinct geographical areas of Allerdale which include Workington, Maryport, Keswick & Cockermouth and North Allerdale. The Area Youth Development Workers actively support youth groups and projects in terms of funding, organisational and Policy matters, while the Trainee Youth Workers work directly with the young people using the services. 

County Councillor Barbara Cannon, Chair of Allerdale Local Committee says 

"The Allerdale services to young people programme began in 2001. As we now enter the third and final year of this programme and with a rapidly changing 'Youth Work' agenda both locally and nationally, it is timely that an independent evaluation is undertaken that can then be used by the elected members, as a tool to help shape the future of services to young people in Allerdale. We need an evaluation report that collects the facts, analyses the findings and concludes with a clear set of recommendations so we can make sure that we continue to meet the needs of the young people in this area."