Vox Pop: Should youth clubs be located on school premises?

YES
Karen Buck MP, shadow minister for young people

Youth centres come in many forms, and most do a fantastic job. But money is desperately tight and we want to stretch what we have, focusing on people and services rather than on specific buildings, where this is possible.

We want to examine the case for locating more youth clubs in schools. This could deliver good new services with real value for money, as well as encouraging a wider diversity of young people to attend. Schools can have a greater diversity than many youth clubs, encouraging more social mixing. Labour wants to help improve the quality of youth services, knowing we must do more with less. This also means allowing young people greater control of services, and ensuring services are accountable to the young people they serve.


NO
Helen Marshall, chief executive, Clubs for Young People

While welcoming Labour’s review, Clubs for Young People would propose a different approach to ensuring youth clubs continue to thrive.

The essence of successful youth clubs is that they are part of the local community where young people live. Young people having a sense of ownership and belonging is fundamental; this will not reflect many young people’s experience of their school.

Our approach is to think more creatively about how to redevelop and sustain existing clubs and invest in new ones using social enterprise and business links.

Youth clubs have to continually reflect on the needs of their customers. This should be the first area of review, as the quality of activities and relationships in the building make the biggest difference to young people.


NO
Peter Gibson, manager, Rathbone

The idea of providing more youth clubs is a good one. But for those for whom mainstream education has been difficult, placing them in schools won’t prove popular.

Pre-16 training providers like Rathbone create an environment that is completely different from class, because for some young people school has become synonymous with issues like failure and bullying. While young people call for more youth clubs, they also criticise what is on offer there. There is also the problem of finding good staff to run them.

The Lancashire R-Zone clubs are a vision of how it should work. Stocked with computer games and based in lively locations, they double up as a careers service staffed by experienced youth workers. The real way to find out what facilities young people want and where, would be to ask them.


NO
Malcolm Trobe, policy director, Association of School and College Leaders
 
In general, it is a good idea for youth centres to be in a separate place from schools, although it is sensible to have them close enough to enable best use to be made of school facilities.

The Labour Party is correct to identify that much public money has been spent on improving school facilities and these should be made available to the wider community, not just youth groups.

One of the major issues regarding co-location is to do with the different cultures developed in youth centres as opposed to schools. Youth centres adopt a wide range of approaches to attract young people. Many may find coming to what they perceive as a “school environment” more challenging than entering a youth centre, which they feel much more ownership of and are involved in its running.