Youth Services: MP calls for youth services to be statutory in education bill

Paddy Tipping, the Labour MP for Sherwood, called for the Westminster debate to highlight his concerns about the way young people are seen in society.

"We live in a country where young people are seen as a problem," he said. "I want to speak out and say young people are our future. We shouldn't always complain about behaviour. The youth service can be very effective at working with young people."

Before the debate, Tipping told Young People Now that he intends to argue that youth services are suffering from limited resources that mean they have to make tough choices about which young people they target. He is also concerned that moves towards integrated education and social services are squeezing youth services. He believes that amending legislation going through Parliament to make the service statutory would address the problem.