'Sleepless nights' and worry for Mansfield youth organisation as demand soars
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Marcellus Baz BEM, the founder of Switch Up and the Nottingham & Mansfield Schools of Boxing says he’s had 75 referrals in Mansfield alone, on top of a further 61 in Nottingham.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdReferrals have been coming in from council social care services, the county’s violence reduction unit, and schools amid significant cuts to public services.
Baz said: “We’ve always been getting referrals.
“But we are really concerned at the minute because the referral numbers have really shot up since the council cuts.
“I’m having sleepless nights, I’m having trouble with trying to find support for people who really, really need it.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdLabour-run Nottingham City Council recently slashed Baz’s area-based grant funding by £30,000, as part of its latest round of budget cuts approved in March.
Back in March, the authority said: “The council’s financial reserves have been impacted by decisions it has made in the past and this has affected our financial resilience,
“However, since 2013-14, the council’s revenue support grant (RSG) from Government has reduced by nearly £100m every year.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBaz says years of cuts to youth services and other public services have left him with more referrals than he’s had since founding Switch Up 11 years ago.
He continued: “We always knew we were going to get impacted by the council cuts, with front line services being cut, community centres and youth services being cut.
“My ultimate concern is there are going to be young people, their families, that are not being supported and not getting the help they need.
"There are going to be consequences.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBaz went on to explain he does not think his current Nottingham base in Woodborough Road, St Ann’s, will survive another winter due to its ‘uninhabitable’ condition.
The organisation is now seeking another home on land owned by the city council in St Ann’s.
Proposals for the new facility are expected to cost around £4m.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHowever Baz’s head coach, Barney Hussain, says they are hundreds of thousands of pounds off its target to raise £500,000.
In its manifesto, Labour pledged to boost youth services and mental health support.
Responding to a spate of bankruptcies in local councils, Jim McMahon MP (Lab), Levelling Up, Housing and Communities minister, said: “Yes, we do need to address it.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“We’re committed to ensuring that councils have the resources they need to provide decent public services to their communities.
“Our councils do a wonderful job but they’ve had to deal with very significant budget pressures, and that’s adult social care demand, it’s children’s services and of course, it’s temporary accommodation.
“We need to get ahead of what’s actually causing that demands.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"Fixing the wider system is really important, because in the end, a lot of pressure that brought to councils is because they’re the last line of defence.
"But it’s a whole system that needs to be repaired.”
In a message to the new Labour Government, Baz added: “Please provide resources and funding to front line services, replenish public services and help us to be able to have environments, buildings, youth services, youth hubs, community centres, because we need them.”
Comment Guidelines
National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.