Northumberland County Council has made a total of twelve youth workers redundant, leading to fears young people could be turned away from existing voluntary services.
The council has said the decision was taken after it was agreed to channel resources into the "passionate and dedicated" voluntary and community sector - but workers in the sector have warned sessions will be cancelled unless the funding gap is plugged.
Two part-time youth workers and 10 part-time youth support workers will lose their jobs as part of the changes; the equivalent in hours of three full-time staff members.
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Gemma Nixon is the manager of Prudhoe Youth Project, which is losing six hours of support provided by a county council youth worker. She fears that the project may be forced to turn away young people in the future, and hit out at the council over a lack of consultation and warning for affected organisations.
Gemma said: "Officially, we have been told absolutely nothing. The council hasn't actually told us anything.
"What we do know, from that member of staff that provides six hours a week, is that they have been given their redundancy notice. We have just weeks until they're no longer working for Northumberland County Council.
"The impact it will have is huge. We rely on them to meet our current ratio, we're quite busy at Prudhoe Youth Project, we're full up. We support around 70 young people on a weekly basis with sessions across the town.
"We're potentially looking at having to turn kids away or not run certain sessions."
Gemma also explained that the youth project was already feeling financial pressure due to the cost of living crisis.
She continued: "We in the voluntary sector have always picked up what they can't. We're doing it really well but it is a day-in-day-out struggle; no funding is guaranteed.
"We're plugging the gaps because that is the type of sector we are but then people throw curveballs at you with no notice. The funding for the youth worker comes to more than £5,000 a year and we've already set our budget and are at a slight deficit.
"The biggest impact has been food cost. One group in West Wylam relies on a meal being provided and the cost of that has doubled."
It's not just in Prudhoe that the impact is being felt. In Haltwhistle, in the far west of the county, long-serving youth club Young and Sweet is facing a similar situation.
Youth worker Ayesha Jackson said: "The county council have a history going back about 16 years of providing Young and Sweet with two members of staff to provide one session per week. In August this will come to an end with no offer of any financial support to help us continue providing school year 8+ with an open access session.
"This could leave 25 young people who have been members for four years with no group to go to. We are also experiencing high gas rates which, in the winter, will put extreme pressure on our finances.
"On top of trying to find extra funds to cover the loss from the council, it couldn't be worse timing. The county council is relying on the voluntary sector to deliver what they say are valuable services; however they are not providing any kind of support to enable us to do this."
Explaining the council's decision, Coun Guy Renner-Thompson, cabinet member for inspiring young people, said the council remained "absolutely committed to providing first class" youth services, but conceded that the authority would be doing so in a "slightly different way" in the future.
He continued: "We have a passionate and dedicated voluntary and community sector who care deeply about improving the lives of children and young people. Following consultation with our young people, families and partners, it was agreed that the best way to achieve our ambitions for our young people is to channel our resources into supporting these organisations to expand their excellent work.
"In planning our services, we need to consider the resources available and decide on the things that we can do as a council and those things we need to work in partnership to achieve. As a result of the review, a small number of part-time posts have been made redundant.
"We are supporting these colleagues through this process and are working with community partners to ensure services to young people are not affected. More announcements around the young people’s offer will be coming soon including recruiting for young people’s support workers who will work with our young people, families and providers and bring more investment into services.
“In the meantime, our Family Hubs are available to everyone and if you would like to find out about support and activities for young people in your area, please contact your nearest Family Hub.”
The council has also said that, as part of the process to support the staff being made redundant, they will be offered a list of roles currently available within the council they may wish to apply for.
On the lack of consultation with affected organisations, a spokeswoman for the council added: "We were not able to consult with the wider community until we had been through the consultation process with the members of staff involved.
"Now that is complete, the restructure can take place and we are now working with providers to explore ways of ensuring that the children and young people continue to get all the support that they need both in the immediate and in the longer term."
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