Research by the Department for Children, Schools and Families conducted with young people consistently highlighted the need for more organised activities on Friday and Saturday nights. This led the government to encourage youth services in England to open more facilities on 10 and 11 July to help establish just how many young people would use them if they were there.
Interviews conducted by Youth Work Now following the weekend reveal that implementation of the initiative was patchy and, in some areas, non-existent. Some heads of youth services said they were given too little notice to do anything over the weekend and others simply did not have the budget. Most worryingly, neither of the two voluntary youth sector organisations we spoke to was aware of the Open Weekend. Not surprisingly, the areas that seemed to embrace the weekend were those that received additional money last year to run more activities on Fridays and Saturdays.
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