Or, as "Children & Young People Now" put it, "a dog’s breakfast"!

A recent report by the Audit Commission highlighted the bureaucracy and inefficiency of public funding for schemes to address anti-social behaviour. Some interesting statistics included:

• A typical project leader spends nearly a third of their time (28 per cent) on identifying and applying for funding and on managing budgets.
• It costs about £3,300 to apply for and manage each new funding stream. The cost of applying for and managing some funding streams can exceed the value of the grant received.
• Funding for preventive work goes to individual projects and is rarely coordinated across an area.

There are a number of recommendations. Councils and their partners should, as a minimum, coordinate applications for funding. Failure to do so results in competition for the same money and wasted time, money, and effort. The outcome is a local pattern of provision that fails to reflect need.

Our experience to date reflects these findings. Some schemes (such as V match funding) are very bureacratic and the overheads can be completely out of line with the size of the grant. There does seem to be a lack of joined-up thinking in some areas. But by definition, joined-up thinking is a joint responsibility for all of us who are looking to address young people’s issues. Inner Flame puts a lot of time and effort into building these relationships, and we’ve found that most organisations are really keen to work together if it produces a better result.

If you work with 14-18 year olds in the Northern half of Wiltshire and we haven’t spoken yet, please accept my apologies and the offer of a cup of coffee!

David