Recent weeks have seen the impending closure of youth services across Birmingham making the headlines, and those working in these services rallying support on social media and in the press.
These harsh measures are felt painfully by all those committed to giving young people access to the safe spaces and trusted adults, who can help hone their life skills, explore their values and give them the sense of belonging they are craving.
However, we understand that these decisions are not taken lightly and that with the increasing demand for social care services and inflationary pressures, youth services can be vulnerable when local authorities have 1000s of statutory duties and responsibilities to meet. It’s nothing new of course, since 2012 austerity measures has amounted to £1.2 billion real terms cuts in local authority expenditure and the loss of over 1000 youth clubs. The voluntary sector is carrying the can, and in Birmingham, a quarter of VSC orgs says they could not survive beyond six months if their current income stream ceased.
Our work with policy makers, as well as those delivering and commissioning youth work, to evidence its fundamental value is relentless.
Leigh Middleton OBE,
NYA Chief Executive
Youth workers are now integrated in teams alongside social workers, in and with schools and of course, supporting young people at risk of gangs and youth crime, changing the trajectory of their lives in astounding ways.
Youth workers, with their voluntary relationship built on trust, are often the first to hear safeguarding disclosures (lest we forget the role of a youth worker in exposing the abuse of girls in Rotherham) and their role is now enshrined in the latest Department for Education ‘Working Together’ guidance. There’s also robust research evidence, by the University of Warwick, linking the closure of youth services in London with an increase in youth crime.
”Putting it bluntly, cutting youth services might help save the pennies in the short term, but at what longer term cost, both to our young people and the other services burdened further down the line?"
Leigh Middleton OBENational Youth Agency Chief Executive
Our latest National Youth Sector Census report reveals that demand for mental health support has increased more than any other targeted service, with demand increasing amongst 82% of organisations. And nearly three quarters of young people who attend a youth club weekly, who took part in our first ever youth survey, said that it supported their mental and physical wellbeing a great deal. 71% of black respondents who took part in youth work in the last year said it made them feel valued and included ‘a great deal or quite a bit’.
Furthermore, UK Youth and Frontier Economics has found that for every £1 government invests in youth work, the benefit to the taxpayer is between £3.20 and £6.40. Youth work is already saving the government £3.2bn a year through improved education and employment outcomes and positive impacts on mental health.
With youth clubs doing all they can to provide support for mental health for those unable to access support from children’s mental health services, or falling beneath the threshold for support, and also diverting young people from gangs and exploitation, the impact of further cuts on our communities is likely to be devastating.
The NYA has been presenting the case for youth work at the recent party conferences and I recently visited a youth club in Gravesend to speak to Radio 4 journalist, James Naughtie, about the plight of the youth work sector for The World at the Weekend. I was also interviewed by Ashley John-Baptiste, for BBC The One Show, about the importance of youth work and challenges facing many clubs around the country.
”Our message is simple: it’s now time for the government to share their vision, and the steps they’re going to take, to sustain existing youth work services and build back the sector to help build stronger, more cohesive communities. This will help keep our young people safe and well, and enable them to envision a positive future for themselves."
Leigh Middleton OBENational Youth Agency Chief Executive
For our part we stand shoulder to shoulder with those youth workers, dedicated to helping young people reach their potential.
We also stand ready to work with any Local Authority looking to better understand how it can meet its statutory duty to deliver a youth work offer which responds to need and which can be funded sustainably through innovative commissioning and partnership working with the voluntary and community sector.
