Vox Pop: Should youth policy be left to councils, not Whitehall?

NO
Tim Tod, chief executive, Young Devon

When Michael Gove says that local authorities should develop youth policy, does this mean that they can opt in or out of nationally determined youth policies such as the National Citizen Service, or the lower housing benefit entitlement for young people needing to live away from home, or the sub-minimum wage for young people in work? I suspect not.

So which youth policy is he referring to? Sadly, I suspect it is the one that would allow some local authorities not to have to justify their lack of adequate investment in the local youth services. These are the services that can often provide the only point of contact for young people away from the classroom as they try to navigate successfully through adolescence into adulthood.


NO
Julia Redgrave, chief executive, Momentum Norfolk
 
It is essential that central and local government work together to ensure that policies and priorities are right for the young people of today.

Both have a very important role to play. National policies and frameworks are essential to ensure equality.

Meanwhile, local support is needed from councils working in partnership with their communities to meet local priorities and deliver much needed services for young people.


YES
Kathy Gyngell, research fellow, Centre for Policy Studies

Of course Michael Gove is quite right. Past youth policy, as with much of the Every Child Matters agenda, has been over-prescriptive.

The result has been wasteful and ineffective services, driven by bureaucratic requirements rather than by quality or even need.

Young people’s needs vary widely and local authorities should be free, within a general requirement do so, to provide a locally sensitive response – co-opting the expertise of proven youth charities and projects they deem the most effective in helping young people lead fulfilled and positive lives.


NO
Julie Bentley, chief executive, Girlguiding UK

Michael Gove’s comments were disappointing. To say that youth policy is not a priority for central government is to suggest that it is not a priority at all.

This is a damaging message to young people – that they are unimportant or, at worst, irrelevant. Youth policy must be retained centrally, not only so that initiatives are targeted, co-ordinated and standardised, but to ensure they are measurable.

Girlguiding UK works at community level to deliver fun activities and a non-formal educational curriculum led by the interests and needs of girls. It is our remit to create overarching initiatives to ensure our volunteers provide the same opportunities to all girls, in all communities across the UK. Why should it be any different for central government?