I am making this request to Wokingham Council with regards to its Section 251 Budget declaration to the Department for Education. This is in reference to lines 3.5.1 – 3.5.3 of the budget, in particular on Services for young people.

In 2020/21, Wokingham Council spent £360,290 on Services for young people (split £0 on 3.5.1 Universal services and £360,286 on 3.5.2 Targeted services). In the latest financial year 2021/22, the Council spent £109,536 on Services for young people (split £0 on 3.5.1 Universal services and £109,536 on Targeted services). This is an overall decrease of -96% year-on-year. As this is a notable decrease, and an area of funding which typically has fallen at almost all local authorities over the past decade, I am requesting to find out why this budget was cut so substantially.

1. Accordingly, if it is possible, I am requesting a breakdown of Wokingham Council’s expenditure for sections 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 for 2020/21 and 2021/22. Please also can this include details of how these projects were funded – ie, through local authority funding, central government, other funders etc. If a detailed breakdown on a project-by-project basis for each financial year is not possible within the limits of a FOI request, please could you detail whether the decreased expenditure in 2021/22 was due to a reduction in central government funding or local authority-based funding, that would be greatly appreciated.

There hasn’t been a significant reduction in the spend in the provision of Services for Young People, but to meet the requirements of the return more accurately, we have made changes to the way that we are reporting the data.

A significant proportion of the staffing costs are now included in line 3.6.1 (Youth Justice). Internal transfers have now been included as a reduction in expenditure rather than income. There has been no change in the funding of projects between 20/21 and 21/22. For line 3.5.2, direct pay costs have decreased by £164,000 largely due to the reporting of data as explained earlier. There has been a £10,000 increase in non-pay costs between 20/21 and 21/22.