ROOM 13 in Okehampton has been confirmed as the specialist youth centre hub for West Devon. Devon County Council's cabinet made the decision to retain Room 13 as one of eight youth hubs for each of the county's eight districts on June 11. The hubs will work with the most vulnerable young people, as well as providing three open sessions for all youngsters each week and expertise for community groups which want to set up their own sessions. There will also be extra funding to assist communities to develop their own local youth offer using council buildings and other assets. A separate exercise later in the year will consider possible ways to deliver the retained service. The new service model follows a major review of the Devon Youth Service and extensive public engagement and consultation which ended in April. The county council had planned to withdraw completely from all universal youth provision, including all 32 existing youth centres, and reduce staff numbers from 114 full-time equivalent staff to 33 FTE staff. The proposals were part of an effort to shave almost £1-million off the youth services budget as part of Devon County Council's overall budget cuts of £110-million by 2017. The new model now proposes the retention of 53.5 FTE staff working both in a targeted role with the most vulnerable and running open-access sessions. Cllr James McInnes, cabinet member with responsibility for children and young people's services, and county councillor for Hatherleigh and Chagford, said: 'This council is fully committed to continuing to protect, nurture and support our young people and we fully recognise the value of local youth services to our communities. 'But with public funding getting ever tighter, we have no choice but to look very carefully at everything we do. For the Devon youth service not to wither away over time we have to be creative and bold in order to keep what is most important whilst putting things on a more sustainable basis. 'I would especially like to thank everyone who has taken part in this important debate and praise the many groups and communities that have come forwards with positive ideas and suggestions. We have listened very carefully. 'Open-access youth centres are not a statutory function and improving our targeted early intervention work with the most vulnerable young people has to be the top priority. 'But we also recognise the important role that open-access provision has for many communities as part of the broader network of local support for young people and we wish to help support and encourage this. 'I believe our solution offers the best opportunity to both target our limited resources on the most vulnerable whilst harnessing the capacity and expertise of a professional youth service to help build local networks and support the development of local community based provision.'