Fight against council's youth centre plans

Birmingham City Council wants to offload four youth centres to a third-party provider

Birmingham councillors are fighting against the city council's divisive youth services plans, amid fears over young people's futures being "put at risk".

The council, which is recovering from a financial crisis, has reviewed the service in an attempt to make savings and wants to offload four centres to a third-party provider.

They are Clifton Road Youth Centre in Sutton Coldfield, Naseby Youth Centre in Alum Rock, Maypole Youth Centre in Druids Heath and Lozells Recreation Group.

The Labour-run authority wants to retain ownership of four others – Shard End Youth Centre, The Factory in Longbridge, The Lighthouse in Aston and Concord Youth Centre.

Two Green Party councillors are now challenging the council cabinet's decision and have requested a "call-in", asking for it to be looked at again this week.

One of them, Julien Pritchard, argued they needed "cast iron guarantees" that youth centres would "stay open as youth centres".

"It's incredibly disappointing that Labour councillors approved this and put our youth centres at risk," he said.

"If no partner organisation is found, then these youth centres will close. That's an incredible risk to be taking with young people's futures and our communities.

"Last year young people in Birmingham made their voices heard, protesting and writing to councillors about how vital their youth centres were. Those voices must be listened to."

Concerns over the city's youth service have been a recurring theme since the council effectively declared itself bankrupt in September 2023.

'Lives being lost'

Fears over Birmingham's youth service have also been voiced by campaigners, including Alison Cope, whose teenage son Joshua Ribera was killed in a knife attack in 2013.

"Parents, schools and youth services are all struggling already," she warned last year.

"What is the priority for Birmingham? What does the council want? Does it want Birmingham to be a place where people feel welcome and safe to travel?

"They are going to make cuts but let's make sure it's not going to result in lives being lost."

The call-in request will now be considered at a council scrutiny meeting on Friday.

Despite concerns, Mick Brown, the Labour cabinet member for children and families, recently said the plans provided a "clear and balanced approach" to managing the authority's youth service.

"[They propose] retaining key buildings in council ownership where direct delivery remains essential," he said during a cabinet meeting last month.

"But we're also ensuring we explore options like transferring other sites to trusted third-party providers who will continue to deliver youth services from those locations.

"This is about modernising our approach, ensuring that money we spend delivers the maximum value for our young people."

He said that every site identified for transfer had at least two viable partner organisations.