Opinion: Labour's youth promise not fulfilled yet

Such issues captured the imagination and won considerable support. A decade later, much of that enthusiasm has now passed into widespread cynicism.

Instead of drilling down to the provision of services where they may have made a difference, the early frameworks have been replaced by an incessant round of strategies and initiatives. It is demoralising to discover that many of those involved in debates about youth policy have never heard of Policy Action Team (PAT)12 or, in Wales, of Extending Entitlement.

Yet both were published only five years ago as the beacon documents for youth policy development.

Meanwhile, a significant minority of another generation of young people are consigned to the margins - excluded from school, demonised in the media and still unable to access appropriate support. Political eyes are averted from what really needs to be done because, though it is a simple story, it is complex and expensive to deliver. And that is for suitably skilled and trained professionals to be in the right place at the right time, what I have incessantly referred to as "critical people at critical moments".