The minister for young people certainly got about during the Labour Party's conference in Bournemouth last week.
Margaret Hodge spent most of her time selling the virtues of the children's green paper and her new position. If it mentioned young people, she was there, fringe event after fringe event.
Her mission was to promote the Government's vision of joined-up services for children and young people and, in particular, to make up for the near absence of the youth sector within the green paper.
Speaking at a debate organised by the think-tank The Social Market Foundation, she agreed with The National Youth Agency's chief executive, Tom Wylie, who told of his disappointment with the green paper's lack of proposals specific to teenagers.
"I accept entirely the point on adolescents," she replied. Hodge went on to admit that the 3bn she believed the Government was investing in support services for young people each year was not being spent very well.
"I think we've done a lot in Government - more young people with GCSEs, the New Deal and modern apprenticeships," she said. "But equally, we haven't made inroads into other areas - staying on in education for 16- to 19-year-olds, teenage pregnancy, teenage suicide and truancy rates."
She also said non-statutory youth services would have an important role in her plans for youth policy, noting that many of the best ways of working with young people come from that sector.
"I can create structures where the voluntary sector can play an important role," she told delegates.
Hodge also did a lot of flag waving for the green paper's extended schools proposal, where schools would become hubs for services to the community.
But doubts about the extended school plans continued to linger. The question of where those young people excluded or disengaged from the school system would be left if all services move into schools remained unanswered.
"There is a bit of a welfare philosophy in the children's green paper and not enough about developing a sense of values, belief and responsibilities," said Wylie. "Let us not become overly reliant on the school system."
Another area of concern was youth justice. The antisocial behaviour bill, in particular, attracted criticism. The Children's Society conducted a survey of Labour activists during the conference about their behaviour as teenagers, and found that 91 per cent would have been at risk of breaching measures.
But the bill is a winner among those same Labour activists who spent much of the hour prior to David Blunkett's speech telling the conference about young "thugs" and "villains".
Blunkett himself only mentioned youth crime briefly, saying that 370m has gone into youth justice boards. But it was left to Tony Blair to signal the Government's commitment to the bill.
"I can't believe we can be a just society if we tolerate the disrespect from other people's children that we wouldn't tolerate from our own," said Blair during his leader's speech.
But unease about the bill was widespread among those representing young people and the youth sector.
Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of the Children's Society, said: "We don't define what it is but we are debating antisocial behaviour as if we all understand its meaning. It is a dangerous thing to do."
Chris Ware, Bournemouth's UK Youth Parliament member, was also scathing about the bill: "If there isn't a clear definition of what antisocial behaviour is, the power will be given to the police and the reporting public and as there is prejudice there it will be divisive for communities.
Let's not make criminals out of children for being children."
Bournemouth played host to a Labour Party that on the face of it seems set on criminal justice measures that have sparked concern among young people and youth workers - but on the conference fringes there was a more youth-friendly story. The question, which Bournemouth failed to answer, is which side will win.
CONFERENCE QUOTES
- "She's like a posh granny" - UK Youth Parliament member Chris Ware on Margaret Hodge.
- "The risk is we are teaching our children that their play, their socialising and their very presence is a threat" - Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of the Children's Society, on the antisocial behaviour bill.
- "The way we have developed youth services has been almost Victorian, with children being seen but not heard" - Margaret Hodge on the difference a Children's Commissioner will make.
- "If we don't think that young people are mature enough to vote at 16 then we are to blame for that" - Nigel Griffiths, trade minister, at a debate on voting at 16.
