Oxfordshire county council’s previously announced cuts to youth service funding have been reduced and delayed until 2012:
Savings in the youth service of £2.3m over five years have been dropped and replaced with proposals for cuts of up to £350,000 from 2012.
The Oxfordshire fire cadet scheme and the Oxfordshire Youth Parliament have also been spared.
Plans to re-introduce on-street parking charges in Oxford on Sundays and in the evenings have been dropped.
The Chill Out Fund, a grant for youth work in the county, will not now be cut, but the council’s outdoor …

According to an Ofsted report, Swindon council workers are among the best in the country:
Ofsted has graded Swindon Council as the top performing local authority in the country for safeguarding and looking after children in care.
Seven years ago, the council’s Children Services department was branded as one of the worst in the country.
Councillor Garry Perkins, Cabinet Member for Children Services, said: “I am very proud of this result which has been achieved through sheer determination and a real team effort across Children Services to raise standards even further.
via Swindon Advertiser

Southend Council’s Intervention Project designed to reduce the number of people turning to crime has had a "100% success rate" and as such received the praise of Prime Minister Gordon Brown:
Under the scheme, the council’s youth offending service gets in touch with families of youngsters with a high risk of offending.
They teach the families parenting skills, how to set boundaries with their kids and how to get them up and off to school.
It has been such a success that Mr Brown invited youth offending chief Carol Compton and council chief …

Recent findings relating to the completeness of assesments has resulted in calls for improvements to the current processes.
Bolton Council’s Youth Offending Team (YOT) was heavily criticised by HM Inspectorate of Probation, which called for improvements to be made in the way that the team operates.
The YOT supports people aged 10 to 17 who have been in trouble with the law.
Probation inspectors found that proper assessments, including looking at the likelihood of young people harming themselves or re-offending, were not being carried out in many cases.
via This is Lancashire