A cabbie's diatribe on disaffected youth

A bunch of salt-of-the-earth youth workers were sharing their experiences and wisdom with a couple of people charged with compiling a report on the state of play. The usual stuff was trotted out: the voluntary principle, the educative purpose of youth work.

There was the predictable mantra about under-resourcing and simply just not being able to do enough for challenging young people who presented a complex range of needs. Complaint and concern was expressed about being sucked into meeting targets set by others, on other agendas such as the re-inclusion of the "Neets" in learning and training.

There was acknowledgement of the need for some "tough love": holding young people to account for wayward behaviour and making them aware of the consequence of their actions. Youth work was not a soft option: given half a chance (that was not usurped by some wide-boy organisation making ridiculous claims of what it could achieve faster, cheaper and with more young people), it embedded standards of citizenship and responsibility in young people.