Call for lost services for young people in Calderdale to be restored

Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, Coun Adam Wilkinson

A questioner asked Calderdale Council to re-examine and look at restoring services which have been lost in north Halifax and which helped alleviate social problems including drug addiction.

She was speaking in the public question time session at the final 2021 meeting of the full council.

Recently open access youth provision – available to everyone – had been much reduced with an onus put on community groups to provide activities, and Mixenden Activity Centre, which ran events for young people, had been closed.

Some of the changes were made because the council had to make savings to balance its books, councillors had heard previously.

In response to the question, Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, Coun Adam Wilkinson (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) said the council and its partners did offer a range of services for young people of north Halifax who were suffering with mental health or addiction problems.

These included Open Minds, which had the highest number of referrals coming from north Halifax postcodes and which in turn offered other services and support.

There were also therapeutic interventions in schools and online support for young people, their parents and carers – and the council was commissioning some open access services, he said.

With no bids received from the upper Calder Valley, half the budget for these was being spent in north Halifax after Cabinet decided that funding should be re-allocated to north Halifax due to levels of deprivation in the area, said Coun Wilkinson.

The proposal, aimed at provision for around 75 to 150, 13 to 19-year-olds, was to develop programmes that gave young people opportunities, experiences and skills to help them make informed choices about their lives, he said.

Coun Wilkinson said the council was still exploring opportunities to deliver with West Yorkshire Police activities again at Mixenden Activity Centre, and drug and alcohol services had also been designated for north Halifax, he said.