Jackie Porter, Lib Dem Education Spokesperson for children has appealed to Conservative bosses to re-think the impact of cuts decisions being made this late in the financial year.
The Conservatives made a decision to slash the budget for youth work in February, but the consultation on the cuts is only happening now.
Any final decision can therefore only be confirmed in early 2015.

For many youth charities who are commissioned to support vulnerable children and young people, the decision to cut the money will be very close to the end of the financial year.As the Chairman of a Youth Charity doing this work, it is clear that we may have to make drastic changes: staff futures won’t be secure- and we won’t have time to sort out alternative ways to work with every young person that we currently help.

On Tuesday, Jackie attended a youth conference organised by Alex Maynard and Amelia Wrigley, the Youth Voice representatives at Hampshire County Council. The young people kept telling us how important it was to have space and support from adults outside school- they were even considering how they could support one centre.

Jackie says,’ The Conservatives are in danger of listening but not heeding. Their Exec member says he wants a genuine review, but I believe that the short time between the review and the possible implementation date will put young people at risk.This feels like deja vu- it is the same story as the Short Breaks consultation- with too little time to ‘turn the ship round’and find other funding. I accept that difficult decisions had to be made- but it is far too close to the deadline’.