Loss of experienced Youth Workers unforgivable
The Belfast Education and Library Board has responded to criticisms from
Sinn
Fein Education Spokesperson Michael Ferguson about the potential loss
of
half of the City's Educational Youth Provision.
Sinn Fein
Education Spokesperson Michael Ferguson who has been highlighting
the
case of 28 educational youth workers who are facing redundancy next
month
has been critical of the BELB response and damning of the Education
Department.
He said,
" The BELB has responded to the potential loss of half
of its educational
youth provision by claiming that it has been in
negotiation with the
Education Department for sometime to resolve the
problem.
"The truth of the matter is that we have experienced
frontline youth workers
who have been on six month to twelve-month
contracts for five years when
this essential service should have been
mainstreamed.
"The Department of Education itself has published a
report called
'Transforming Youth Services' in which they recommend one
youth worker for
every thirty young people and yet there are only
fifty-six throughout the
entire city and half of these are under threat
while the rest are on 6-12
month contracts.
"We have high
levels of poverty and deprivation in the city, we have
unprecedented
levels of self-harm and suicides among young people and we
need at
least 100 youth workers who are on the mainstream parole. The BELB
are
being disingenuous in their response and should have the courage to
challenge
the Department and the Department is abdicating their
responsibility
for educational youth provision even by their own standards.
We
need a Real Education Budget that supports Education and Learning and
youth
services central to this provision."ENDS