CONCERNS have been raised over changes to North Yorkshire County Council's focus on children and young people.

The cash-strapped authority says it is targeting its resources where they will make the most difference.

Its newly-created Prevention Service will target children, young people and families from birth up to 19 years old, and follows consultation with those affected.

It means it will no longer itself run youth clubs, although it has just agreed a year-long contract for a private company to take on 15 existing clubs across the county - including ones in Glusburn and Settle.

It is also reviewing premises used for youth work in order to spend money on service delivery and will centralise staff in a reduced number of buildings.

But Craven councillors say changes have been made at a cost to children and young people particularly in remote rural areas, including in Cowling, where a question mark hangs over the future of the recently closed youth club.

They also fear clubs will be increasingly left to volunteers to run with no council funding.

North Yorkshire's Pete Dwyer, corporate director for children and young people, recently attended a meeting of Craven District Council's select committee, when he stressed that the authority had to make close to £3 million annual savings from the children and young peoples' service.

He said the new Prevention Service was the envy of most other local authorities and would have a greater emphasis on prevention work.

He accepted a large amount of youth work was carried out by the voluntary sector and that some areas would have problems, but that there would be a six-month review.

Following the meeting, councillors called for a follow up by specialist youth officers to discuss the way forward in Craven.

Committee vice-chairman Cllr David Staveley (Cons) said he feared not enough people were aware of the impact of changes.

And he feared for young people and parents of young children faced with having to either cope with a loss of local services, or having to travel to larger centres, such as Skipton.

He also complained of a lack of coherent information leaving communities unsure what was happening.

Cllr Staveley told last week's full council meeting that he feared many rural locations would see their youth and mother and toddler groups disappear completely.

"It is up to us as community leaders to see if we can find ways to keep these vital services running," he said.