One year on, I fear we are not only no further forward, but even further back. The pandemic continues, and while vaccinations have allowed young people to establish an adapted way of living, the battle scars for both themselves and the sectors supporting them are clear to see.
Last month, the Commons’ health and social care committee released a report into the progress made by the government to improve children and young people’s mental health. The report highlighted that existing community services play a crucial role in offering preventative and early intervention support, promoting good mental health and reducing problems by acting in everyday settings. However, the report also pointed out that funding pressures have meant that budget holders have been forced to focus on those children and young people facing the most urgent difficulties, and not this valuable holistic approach.
This report was released in the same fortnight that latest real-terms funding statistics revealed cuts in this sector have now exceeded £1bn over the course of a decade. These stark findings are just the latest in a long line of cuts despite repeat warnings from YMCA research, and continuous calls from the sector for dramatic re-investment in young people. We know that youth services are vital to young people’s development, that they exist to provide a sense of belonging, a safe space, and the opportunity for some of the most vulnerable young people in the country to enjoy being young. So why are they still being pushed beyond breaking point?
On top of this, young people and the services responsible for housing and equipping them to make the important move into independent living were also dealt a major blow with the removal of the £20 universal credit uplift, a temporary measure enacted to help the most vulnerable during the pandemic. This decision meant that not only did the choices available to young people when moving out of supported housing narrow dramatically – impacting the type of accommodation they move into, access to employment opportunities and how much money (if any) they had left – it meant that already overstretched resources forced services into a bottleneck situation, unable to offer emergency housing to those most in need.
It is beyond time that the government recognised the impact of its decisions on young people and the services supporting them, and provided the overdue investment needed for them to survive. Young people must be offered a real fighting chance at securing employment that is fairly paid, housing that accurately reflects their needs, and community-based services that support and empower them to do just that.
The government must act now and support young people to recover from a harrowing two years and help them move towards a brighter future.
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Denise Hatton is chief executive of YMCA England and Wales
