Report of the Strategic Director – Neighbourhoods attached

The Executive received a report of the Strategic Director – Neighbourhoods, which provided a summary of the Young Manchester review which was undertaken during December 2020 to February 2021. The report set out the findings from the review, considered the response and proposed several actions to build stronger and more effective arrangements going forward to improve the outcomes for children and young people.

Young Manchester was a charity that strived to improve opportunities for all children and young people across Manchester. Young Manchester aimed to provide children and young people across the city with increased opportunities in all aspects of their life by commissioning projects that responded to their ever-changing needs.

The Council’s grant agreement with Young Manchester had been live for the period; 1 July 2017 - 31 March 2021.  Young Manchester performed well in its first year to secure additional funding of £2.4m for play and youth work. However, it had not sustained this level of charitable funding and had struggled to attract new funding from local businesses. The Council had not seen the sustained financial returns it had envisaged through the creation of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation nor had the Council, given the high level of investment provided, been able to influence sufficiently Young Manchester’s work and priorities in the way this was anticipated.

It was clear from the review and the work undertaken on reviewing other delivery models, that leveraging additional external funding was unlikely to be substantially enhanced in the short to medium term by continuing to direct resources through a charitable arrangement.

Officers had examined whether the benefits of the existing arrangements outweighed the loss of influence over the deployment of the Council’s resources and the outcomes that resulted from the Council’s investment. The outcome of this work had led Officers to conclude the additional financial benefits of routing the Council’s investment through a charitable vehicle would be limited over the next 2-3 years and that the lack of control and influence over the work of the Charity put the Council at risk of not delivering the outcomes set out in the strategy and the requirement to build a meaningful youth offer. Given the contribution the Council was making to maintaining the existing arrangements, the lack of direct control and influence and the examples of not making enough meaningful progress against the outcomes, it was proposed that the delivery arrangements should be revisited.

As such, an alternative delivery model was proposed to be designed and developed, which sought to:

·                Build on the strengths and progress made by Young Manchester;

·                Accelerate the achievement of the outcomes set out in the Youth Strategy;

·                Reduce operational overheads and remove duplication to ensure more funding reaches grassroot organisations who were working directly with children and young people;

·                Ensure a citywide youth advisory board worked alongside the current Neighbourhood based youth partnerships to provide the sector with a stronger voice which advised the Council and informed commissioning practices, therefore increasing engagement from across the sector;

·                Placed data and insight at the centre of decision making; and

·                Provided more direct control to the Council over the deployment of its own resources.

It was proposed that the coming months would be utilised as a transitional period so that full consideration could be given to the development of the alternative model of delivery. Once the proposed new arrangements had been fully considered, the detail and full implications would be presented back to the Executive in September for determination.

During the transitional period it was proposed that sufficient resources continued to be made available to Young Manchester to ensure existing commitments to youth organisations could be met.  Whilst significant changes were proposed in order to move away for the existing arrangement, the Council would seek to take the opportunity to strengthen its direct engagement with all youth organisations going forward to ensure that the best outcomes for children and young people were realised.

Decisions

The Executive:-

(1)      Note the findings from the review and endorse the proposal to move towards an alternative delivery model, noting that a detailed proposal on the revised model will be presented back to Executive in September 2021 for determination.

(2)          Note that the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer and the Strategic Director – Neighbourhoods in consultation with the relevant Executive Member for Youth, will seek to agree the details of the grant agreement payment for 2021/22, following engagement with Young Manchester and that a Key Decision will be sought separately in this regard in the coming weeks. The interim grant agreement will be for the purposes of a) fulfilling the obligations of the current youth and play fund to providers; and b) the management and monitoring of the arrangements across the youth and play sector.

[Councillor Rahman declared a personal and non prejudicial interest in this item as he is a Board Member of Young Manchester.]