Budgets for youth services have been slashed by £6m over three years as part of the council’s spending plans for this year, prompting fears of a rise in youth violence.

The cutback could result in “changes in performance” for youth services, holiday activity programmes and adventure playgrounds, according to a report submitted to Lambeth council’s budget-setting meeting last Wednesday, February 29.

The report’s authors said it could also affect the quality of the council’s Young and Safe Programme, which seeks to clamp down on serious youth violence crime in Lambeth.

Protesters rallied outside Brixton town hall before the budget meeting last week to campaign against the changes.

The union estimated 96 jobs in the children and young people’s services department could be lost as a result of restructuring.  Andy Tullis, convener for children’s services at Lambeth Unison said the cuts could prompt an “upturn in crime and antisocial behaviour” among young people.

Union member Jeremy Dewar, who works as a teaching assistant at a Lambeth secondary school, said: “I’ve seen the effect of the cuts on young people I work with, but this is nothing like what is going to happen.”

But council leader Steve Reed insisted 97 per cent of savings had been made without affecting front-line services, adding Labour-run councils were being hit harder by central government cuts than Conservative ones.

He said: “Lambeth is suffering the biggest cash cut anywhere in London this year despite have one of the poorest communities, while wealthier rural and semi-rural areas are actually seeing increases in funding.

“This is not only unfair, it’s vindictive.”

Lambeth Council has revealed plans to launch an independent youth services trust next month, which it hoped would attract several thousand members.

It follows a crunch summit in July last year, which pledged to reduce gun and knife crime among young people.

Of the latest violence council leader Coun Steve Reed said: “It is awful to see a young person lose their life and we fully support the police in their work to address the violence that we have witnessed.”

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