A former journalist at The Guardian, Kelly told Young People Now at last week's Labour Party Conference in Brighton that she forsook the delights of the fourth estate because she wanted to "give a contribution to society in the most direct way she could".
Youth services are a small part of Kelly's brief but they were high on the agenda at Labour's annual gathering, even meriting a mention in Tony Blair's address. But Kelly says the investment the Prime Minister talked about was already attached to the Youth Matters green paper, not new money. "Local authorities must take decisions that are right for young people, to make the system much more responsive to what they want and give them some influence over how the considerable resources already spent are actually used," she says.
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