Youth sector demands legislation to protect services

A coalition of 30 voluntary sector youth organisations and trade unions, co-ordinated by Choose Youth, has created a Young People and Youth Service Bill, which it plans to send to all 650 MPs in the House of Commons.

The first provision of the bill is: "It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to promote, provide and secure a sufficient youth service."

A further duty of the Secretary of State would be to establish a National Youth Service Advisory Board.

The board, which would include young people's organisations, would advise on the development of professional and service standards for the youth service, receive reports from local partnerships, and allocate sufficient funding for local youth service partnerships.
         
The draft bill goes on to set out 10 functions of a statutory youth service, which includes "ensuring the active participation of young people in the specification, governance, delivery and scrutiny of services", and "appropriate information, advice and counselling."

Doug Nicholls, chair of Choose Youth, said: "The Tory-led coalition government sought to destroy youth services to make the voice of young people quiet.

"That was a dedicated act of vandalism.

"But MPs are elected representatives of the people, they have their own views and we do not live in a dictatorship where they are bound by their party manifestos.

"It is important that they adopt these policies. They have to or the youth service will die."

Nicholls said the central aim of the campaign is to halt cuts to youth services and protect universal, open-access youth services for all 13- to 19-year-olds and those up to 25 years old with disabilities.

Unison research published last summer estimated that youth service funding had fallen by £60m since 2012.