A FORMER youth worker has attacked Durham County Council over a plans to shake up its youth services.

Joe Jones, who has worked with young people for more than 30 years, said he was “disgusted” by suggestions to scrap the current service at a presentation at a Teesdale Action Partnership (TAP) meeting.

The 56-year-old, of Barnard Castle, said: “What I thought we were going to discuss was the youth service, but what I have heard describes things differently and not what youth work is.

“I’m quite disgusted really, we call this a consultation but it seems like a done deal to me.”

He added: “We want a service that all young people but what you have just described segregates young people.”

The council’s strategic manager for children’s services reform, Julie Scurfield, told board members that budget cuts were forcing the council to save an extra £1m from the youth services.

As part of the consultation, which will review the existing youth service for 13 to 19-year-olds, current services would be scrapped and replaced with one of three options.

The first proposal is to identify young people who need additional help and work with other providers to “ensure young people can access universal provision and activities”.

The second proposal would be to “deliver a targeted youth support service” which would involve removing youth workers from community clubs and instead concentrate on teams working with schools and families.

Finally, the third proposal is to scrap the current Youth Work Support Grant and redirect up to £138,000 to Area Action Partnerships (AAPs) instead.

“A different approach will help us reach more young people,” Ms Scurfield said.

“We obviously want to make sure the impact of our proposals is a positive one so we can reach those young people and engage with them positively which is what we all want for our young people.”

She added: “We have to remove Durham County Council funding to open access youth clubs but in doing so, in looking at what other activities are available, we have identified that there’s a significant amount of that available and we want to make sure young people have access to that.”

Fears about the consultation were also expressed by other board members and county councillors who said the alternatives would not be suitable for rural areas like Teesdale.

The closing date for comments on the consultation is Wednesday, April 27.

A decision is expected to be made in the autumn.

To comment visit durham.gov.uk/youthsupportconsult