Places to go and things to do ...

Imagine, if you will, being a teenager again, aged perhaps between 13 and 17. That is hard for me, since it is a long time ago. But I can (just) remember it. I spent time hanging out with friends in the village where I lived, traveling by cycle; I was a junior member of the local cricket club; I was a Scout, and I was a member of the youth drama group of my school - 9 miles away by bus, the last bus home being at 2105 (seared on my memory!). Certainly my first underage drinking was carried out in Saffron Walden in the gap before that last bus. All in all, that seems a fairly rounded set of experiences, and I'm grateful to the people who organised them. So some time was sent informally, some with voluntary groups, with a small associated cost, and some with state-organised groups, again with a small direct cost.

There was an urban / rural split, of course, and an income-related gap; but again looking back I met and socialised with young people from both more and less privileged backgrounds than mine.

In very many ways the experiences of our children while growing up has been very similar to mine - a healthy mix of activity. And largely that still seems to be a common experience, at least where we live.

But there are threats all round. State-funded youth provision is being slashed, voluntary organisations are under pressure as costs go up and rents are increased, and parents are becoming more risk-averse about children being away from home. And at the same time the relentless rise of social networking has led to some children staying in their own rooms socialising on-line - no substitute for the real thing. (I can recall only too well when the big issue was whether they should have a TV in their room!)

So I'm a bit gloomy about the future for supported youth provision, which seems to lead inevitably to an increase in directionless activity, some of which can turn in very negative directions. But I'm not for a minute suggesting that all young people need supervising all the time; that would be absurd. I can recall adolescents misbehaving in public parks form a very young age - perhaps when I was 10 or 12 - in just the way that I sometimes see now. Young people need the freedom to make mistakes - though ideally in an environment in which those mistakes can be limited and corrected.

So the whole of society must taken responsibility - not ignoring misbehaviour but re-building the norm of social activity and reasonable expectations. But while we should all do this, there does need to be a backbone of organised activity - however informal. And this must be supported actively by the state, particularly in those areas where the Big Society isn't going to work because there is not critical mass.