Commissioning: Rethinking youth provision

My local area has been front and centre of recent national coverage about the risks posed to vulnerable young people. A BBC Newsnight investigation into unregulated semi-independent accommodation in Bedfordshire raised concerns about the safety of children and prompted a visit to the area by former children's minister Nadim Zawahi. Meanwhile, in August, the National Police Chiefs' Council serious violent crime lead Jackie Sebire, Bedfordshire Police assistant chief constable, came out in support of the Home Office plan to implement knife crime prevention orders, a controversial curfew imposed on anyone aged over 12 believed to be carrying a knife.

While it is probably no more dangerous to be a teenager in Bedfordshire than anywhere else, press coverage of the issues and the response from policymakers is symptomatic of wider debate about the needs of young people. This "deficit" model of youth in public policy and services, which focuses on the challenges and problems of adolescent risk-taking rather than strengths and opportunities, was identified in the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on youth affairs' Youth Work Inquiry. It is a conceptualisation that marginalises young people, and whose negative impact on their wellbeing exacerbates the pressures and inequalities they face.