The failure to specifically use the words "youth work" in the title was deeply concerning.
That said, I warmly welcome the Cabinet's recognition that if there is enough for young people to do at the places and at times convenient to them, they are likely to get involved. But this does create something of a dilemma. Young people tell their youth workers and each other that what they most want is somewhere they can go to meet their friends and have fun free from adult interference. But what local authority youth workers will still have to do is assess the success of their work by looking at the percentage of young people who are deemed to be "participants", rather than contacts who achieve recorded or accredited outcomes.
So over the next 10 years, or earlier if possible, the government needs to do at least two things. First is revisit and devise more relevant and appropriate performance measurements. Second, it must place greater value on the professional standing and status of youth workers within local authorities. The fact remains that in terms of pay and conditions many youth workers are still under-rewarded for the work they do. Unless this is addressed the sector will struggle to attract and retain the workers required to deliver activities.
Resources, or more precisely the lack of them, remain another concern. It is extremely positive that the government has invested considerable additional funds in services for young people. Capital investment in buildings and the continuation of the youth capital and youth opportunity funds are both welcomed, but unless local authorities are held more strongly to account for the sufficient allocation of required revenue funding, it is hard to see how we can realise the vision of positive activities being delivered for young people. There's little point building or modernising youth facilities if there's not the capacity on the ground to manage and run them correctly.
It falls on all of us in the youth sector to continue to ensure that young people not only aim high, but achieve what they have set out to do. After all, if you aim for the moon you might end up among the stars.
- Susie Roberts is chief executive of the Association of Principal Youth and Community Officers.
