Nearly a year after councillors agreed to look at handing Medway’s youth support services to an outside firm, it has decided to run them in-house after all.

The long-awaited decision on the future of the services was made at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The authority agreed to look at moving the department out of its direct control almost 12 months ago as a way of coping with more budget cuts.

But now it will continue to run the service which includes six youth centres, young offenders’ support and Medway Youth Parliament.

Cllr Vince Maple, Labour group leader, spoke at the Cabinet meeting and described the tendering process as a colossal waste of money.

Cllr Maple said: “I welcome the decision to stop the outsourcing process, but frankly, this should have happened in January when the Labour group called for the Cabinet to reconsider the initial decision.

“The Tory Cabinet says that people should support children’s services. I would say that one way of supporting them would be not throw them into uncertainty about their jobs and their much valued services for almost a year.

But Cllr Andrew Mackness, in charge of children’s services, said: “It was a sensible process to ensure the young people of Medway have the best services and outcomes. The decision has been made not to award and continue to give young people the opportunities.”

Initially, it was estimated that moving the youth service, which organises activities for children aged between 11 to 18 as well as providing information and support, to an external provider would save the council £390,000 in 2016-2017 and £1.5 million the following year.

But an independent review and financial data suggested there were “significant further savings and service benefits available by not awarding the contract”.

The Duke of Edinburgh award scheme could face a cut in its budget.