A CAMPAIGN aimed at keeping youth worker Annette Ellis in Driffield is continuing to gather momentum.
Annette, who has been working with youngsters in the town for almost two decades, is being re-assigned to work in Pocklington by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
A petition aimed at halting the move has been launched by students at Driffield School and a group on the social networking site Facebook has attracted 796 supporters in just two weeks.
But the authority insists that the restructure of the Council’s Youth Support Service will continue to provide a service that meets the needs of young people while being cost effective.
A statement from ERYC said: “While local authorities across the country are making significant cuts to their Connexions and youth services, the new structure at East Riding of Yorkshire Council will maintain current staffing levels while achieving savings in the region of £750,000.
“The restructure has affected the whole of the youth support service and the savings have been made through a programme of vacancy management, including some from managerial posts but there have been no staff redundancies.
“Costs have been significantly reduced relating to IT software and management information systems.
“The structure will see youth worker and Connexions posts amalgamated into new youth advisor posts and there will be teams of youth support staff based at locations around the East Riding.”
The council said staff were consulted on the proposed new structure, which was agreed in April, and agreement was made with the unions about a process to be followed by which staff would move into new posts.
The implementation of the new service is on-going but is expected to be completed by March next year.
Kevin Allen, youth support service manager at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “We are not reducing the level of support provided in any area of the East Riding.
“We have guaranteed that there will be no redundancies through this process but because job descriptions and levels have changed, we have not been able to give a guarantee that all staff will remain in their present location.
“Staff have been asked to give a first, second and third preference of location and posts have been offered methodically, according to ranking in interview and preference.
“Following this process, a small number of staff have been offered posts that are not in their present or preferred location.
“In these cases, staff have indicated they will accept the new post offered and we will be ensuring that support is given to enable them to continue to support the young people in those new areas.
“Young people will still continue to be able to access youth support workers in their locality.
“By ensuring that staff are able to work in a more flexible manner, we can respond to the needs of young people more quickly and in a more focussed manner.
“As a result, young people will see an improved service.”