Youth services need investment, especially in left behind communities
The Government’s 10-year youth plan is to be welcomed. What the past 15 years have shown is that a failure to invest in young people can lead to major social and economic issues down the line. It is young people in left behind areas that are the ones that have the most to lose.
Around £500m worth of investment is to go into reviving youth services, with a commitment to build or refurbish 250 youth facilities over the next four years. Whether that is enough we will have to wait and see.
The world is changing and children are becoming more and more isolated. Issues such as loneliness become exacerbated. These children become susceptible to unpleasant forces that lurk in the dark corners of the web. The Netflix drama Adolescence was a wake up call for the political establishment.
It will be interesting to see how the Government aims to ensure 500,000 more young people across England have access to a trusted adult outside their home as well as resources on how to stay safe online as part of the plans.
Especially as the Prime Minister promised to “tread more lightly” on people’s lives when he entered Downing Street.
It is important that this youth plan has input from those that have the most to lose from a lack of services, young people in left behind communities.
What is evident is that youth services are not a ‘nice to have’ but rather fundamental in dealing with the challenges that we face as a society.
It shouldn’t be about retreading what we had prior to the years of austerity. The world has changed since then. But rather about dealing with the issues that are pertinent for the youth of today.
The PM is right, “it is our generation’s greatest responsibility to turn the tide on the lost decade of young kids left as collateral damage”.