'Young people have been forgotten about' - claims Dudley youth worker after damning Ofsted report

Dudley’s young people have been forgotten according to a community worker who was not surprised by Ofsted’s damning verdict on children’s services.

Adam Bradley is one of the founders of The Forge in the Churchill Centre which is a youth hub aiming to help young people escape the trap of becoming NEET (not in employment, education or training).

Adam, who runs the Headz Up CIC, has been working with young people for ten years and organises activities for hundreds of young people aged from 11 upwards.

Speaking after an Ofsted report published on August 25 rated Dudley’s children’s services as inadequate, he said: “We have seen a gradual decline in services which ultimately led to the report, which doesn’t make good reading but I don’t think anybody didn’t expect it.

“Young people have been forgotten about, that’s why we are doing this, we are trying to give them a modern youth space – not a backstreet dingy building with very little to do.”

Adam and fellow community worker James Bragg will be opening The Forge soon but say they have not had any interest from Dudley Council despite the Council House being just a short walk away.

Adam said: “We’ve had the keys to here for seven or eight weeks, we are still waiting for somebody from the local authority to come and look at what we are doing.

“We have reached out several times to several different people by email, phone calls and LinkedIn, how can you not come out and look at what we are trying to do?”

Councillor Wayne Little, Dudley cabinet member for children’s services said:  “We are in regular contact with Headz up and have supported the CIC business with bids for central government funding, as well as inviting them to express interest in tender opportunities.

“The local business sits on the Pride in Place board and Dudley Council has worked with the people who lead the organisation on several projects to benefit the local community.

“I was very excited to hear about The Forge programme. I look forward to visiting the centre when it has opened to learn more about how we might be able to work together in the future.”

The duo, who encourage young people to start training programmes in subjects like sports coaching to give them a better chance of employment, work with children from some of the most deprived and troubled families in the borough.

Every day they see the effects of the problems, including staffing issues, identified by Ofsted in a report released on August 25.

Adam said: “There is a constant change of case workers so for young people and families trying to build a relationship and then you’ve got to start again and again.

“For a young person you are really asking a big thing, they have already had a lot of distrust in their life and too many faces come and go, they just lose hope and feel undervalued.

“It has a huge impact, they struggle with mental health but then you see their physical appearance, hygiene, all that simple stuff they lose value in themselves.

“We see it live as opposed to reading it in an email or in a case study.”

A Dudley Council spokesperson said: “A comprehensive improvement programme is under way, supported by stronger governance, additional investment, increased leadership capacity and workforce growth.

“We are working to recruit and retain good social work staff and managers.”