Torbay Council is leading the way in the South West for innovating the way services are delivered to young people.

Following over 18 months of consultation and approval by the Cabinet Office and full council, a Youth Trust will be set up in Torbay to run and develop activities and opportunities for young people.

Torbay Youth Trust, which will be launching later this year, will be a collaboration between young people, partner organisations across the youth sector, employees, the local community, businesses and the council and will be based at the Parkfield Centre in Paignton.

Cllr Ken Pritchard, Executive Lead for Children, Schools and Families, said: “Sustaining services for young people within the current financial environment is increasingly challenging so we needed to think and act differently in how we deliver services for young people in Torbay. Setting up this innovative Youth Trust means we can continue to meet our statutory responsibilities and achieve best value as well. The Trust also ensures that young people will be at the heart of shaping the future of services and investment in the voluntary and community sector will continue and build on the success that has already been achieved with the Neighbourhood Youth Grant scheme.”

The creation of a Youth Trust will bring a number of benefits to young people and the council, including bringing together the current Youth Services and Young Carers teams with an opportunity to significantly improve youth services provisions whilst helping the council to continue to realise savings. The Trust will also be able to access new funding streams which are not available to the council and with this foster collaborations that brings the whole community together to play their part in youth services. By basing the Trust at Parkfield this will realise the value and opportunity of this site and significantly expand the range of services provided.

A General Manager for Strategy and Operations is to be recruited and it will be their job to oversee the operation of the Trust. One of their first tasks will be to agree the terms of the lease and/or procurement arrangements for the transfer of the Parkfield site, which includes the new building, BMX track and Skateboard Park, to the Torbay Youth Trust.

A new operational, legal and governance structure will be developed to raise funding, develop new services, and encourage collaboration across the bay from a wide range of organisations.
A Board of Trustees will be responsible for the strategic oversight and development of the Youth Trust. The Board will include the General Manager, Trustees with private sector and specialist expertise and a Council representative.

A Development Board will also be set up to solely focus on bringing in funds and income through opening doors, networks and providing their specialist expertise in their respective fields to support specific functions of the Trust, for example marketing, fundraising, finance, public sector bids etc. A Stakeholder Board made up of key delivery partners for the Trust, including the partners supporting the development of MyPlace Centres, will be the focal point of service delivery and will also include customer representation including a young people and a schools representative.

Torbay Council would like to hear from anyone who is interested in becoming a Trustee of the Youth Trust. Trustees would need to have an understanding of delivering services to young people as well as experience of working in the private sector or in a specialist area that is linked to working with or for young people. To express an interest send an email to gail.rogers@torbay.gov.uk.