Corbyn makes statutory youth services pledge
Jess Brown
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Labour leadership front-runner Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to fight for statutory youth services if he is chosen to head the party.
Islington MP Corbyn, who is ahead in the polls to be next Labour leader, said his party should maintain a commitment to a statutory youth service in order to offer young people the benefit of wide-ranging advice, guidance and support to access further and higher education.
His pledge comes just months after Labour ditched its commitment to statutory youth services prior to the general election.
The party's Youth Manifesto for the 2015 election ruled out forcing councils to provide a minimum level of youth provision, committing instead to a “root and branch” review of youth services should it win the general election.
Corbyn's pledge to pursue statutory youth services featured in a youth policy document published yesterday. It includes pledges to:
- Reduce the voting age to 16 years
- Introduce compulsory sex and relationship education
- End all tuition fees in further and higher education
- Restore student grants, Education Maintenance Allowance and Disabled Students Allowance
“I want to strengthen young workers’ rights, protect benefits, control the spiralling cost of rents, make education free and properly fund an NHS that can care for young people’s needs,” Corbyn said in the document.
Jon Boagey, deputy chief executive at the National Youth Agency, described the pledges as "encouraging".
But he called on Corbyn to go further and develop "a realistic vision for young people that joins up isolated policies into a coherent plan".
"This will give young people the reassurance that these pledges can become reality and that their future is a priority to Corbyn’s leadership bid,” he said.
David Wright, director of policy at Ambition, said: “Government has a fundamental role to support and invest in local partnerships so that all young people have an appropriate youth offer, which gives them the support, skills and opportunities to make a successful transition to adulthood.
"Statutory, community, voluntary and private sector resources must be drawn together to secure this offer, encompassing early intervention through to careers guidance, for the benefit of all young people.”
Corby's announcements on youth policy follow the release of his Working with Women document, where he pledged to introduce universal free childcare.