YOUTH WORK: A Challenge to Authority

A normal day for Alan Duncan, Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton and shadow secretary of state for constitutional affairs, might involve a Parliamentary debate or a constituency surgery. It is unlikely to involve jumping off a telegraph pole or trying to convince a lively group of challenging young people to get into a minibus. But that was the order of the day when Duncan swapped the company of MPs for that of 16 "at-risk" young people and four youth workers for a week last year. The result will be shown on the BBC next week as part of its My Week in the Real World series, which previously brought us Michael Portillo as a single mum and will also show Clare Short as a teacher in a south London school.

Youth workers, who often feel disconnected from the corridors of power, will have a special interest in finding out whether exposure to young people will affect Duncan's thinking about areas such as youth justice and youth work. The young people that he worked with are 13- to 16-years-old, part of a youth inclusion programme on the Langley Estate in Middleton, Manchester. The majority are at risk of offending, although some are not. The project is run by national charity Crime Concern Trust and funded by the Youth Justice Board and Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. The outdoor activities trip featured in the programme is designed as an incentive to stay out of trouble, and involves putting young people through "life-affirming challenges".

"The experience has both changed my conceptions and reinforced them," admits Duncan, whose previous experience of youth work was limited to overseeing school camps "years ago", and who decided to take up the challenge of working with young people because "it was better than being a hospital porter". "It led me to realise that these are kids capable of enormous good and decency," he continues. "I thought the young people would be surly but they were more characterful than I expected, and I loved them all to bits. But it reinforced my view that the lack of discipline in schools has caused the difficulties for these kids."

Duncan was struck by how "fantastically disobedient" the young people were. He states: "Young people are more confident than they were and more inclined to challenge authority, because of the collapse of discipline in schools. Just because a home is broken does not mean there cannot be discipline, and the absence of traditional sanctions allows kids to mock authority."

Not such an easy ride

The Conservatives have not traditionally held particularly positive views of "trips" as ways to deal with challenging behaviour. In 1994, then Home Secretary Michael Howard tightened regulations governing days out and adventure courses for young offenders. Of course, the young people on the residential with Duncan were not prisoners. But Duncan is positive about the effects of the course. "In a week, I saw the kids become more attentive to each other, there was less noisy larking about and the vulgar banter settled down," he says. "It was a new experience for them and it brought out the best in them. They felt challenged, sleeping in a log cabin, doing physical exercises - it was quite exhilarating to see them standing on a telegraph pole and jumping off."

Working alongside Duncan was veteran youth worker Nicky Brand and her partner Michael Buckley, who have been running the trips for three years, as well as two paid peer youth workers, Mick Thrussell (19) and Mathew Atkin (18), who attended the course themselves a few years ago. "They are excellent role models and they make the job so much easier," says Brand. "Mathew is now a neighbourhood warden and Mick is a mechanic."

Duncan has nothing but praise for his temporary colleagues. "There are some very dedicated people and the work they do is of enormous value," he says. "The question is whether society is creating so much work for social and youth workers because of its own failure."

All in all, Duncan judges the experiment a success, because, he says, he ended up "really connecting with the young people". Brand, while not questioning his commitment, wonders if he was too anxious to be liked.

"Alan handled the young people well, and he was popular with them, but I don't think he did any youth work," she states. "Youth work is about challenging the young people. But you wouldn't expect anyone with no background in youth work to take to it straight away; given time and training he probably would have done well," she adds.

It's quite obvious that Duncan is not a youth worker - the majority of youth workers would think twice about referring to their teenage girl charges as "sexpots" or entering into a complicated financial deal to cut down bad language that ends up with the youth worker owing all of the young people a fiver each, both of which Duncan did.

The young people seemed to genuinely get on with Duncan. "He's not that different at all," says Natalie, 15, one of the young people on the programme. "We all expected some massive difference but there's not, he's just like us but with a posher accent."

"He was very enthusiastic and keen, but being a politician he didn't listen very well," says Brand. "I was encouraging him to find out more about the backgrounds of the young people."

Conflicting opinions

Thrussell is more forthright. "He didn't have a clue," he states. "He was trying to be best mates but it was all for the cameras and he didn't give a fuck about what the kids were up to. I thought he was a bit of a prat." Thrussell also thinks that Duncan could have done more to find out about the backgrounds of the young people. "He was saying that they were disobedient because they had bad parenting, which got the kids worked up, it was like just because they come from Langley they are all scum. But he didn't bother to find out if they were bullied at school, or if they had had a really rough time."

Many youth workers would come out in cold sweats at the thought of parading their young people in front of a camera team. "I was worried because these are vulnerable young people, but the producers made a huge investment in them and spent time with them beforehand," says Brand. "The show does not brush over the problems, and shows some colourful language and interesting behaviour, but it also shows them becoming a team and achieving."

In the end, Brand hopes that Duncan's week as a youth worker will not only cause him to challenge his preconceptions but will also reach a wider audience. "We wanted to show that good quality intervention makes dramatic changes in people's lives, and wanted to get across the fact that these young people are individuals, and engaging young people who have some problems that need to be dealt with," she explains. And that's a message that everyone in youth work would like to put across. l

My Week in the Real World will be shown on 3 March at 9pm on BBC2

LANGLEY ESTATE YOUTH INCLUSION PROGRAMME

The youth inclusion programme targets 50 young people on the Langley Estate in Middleton, Manchester. Run by national charity Crime Concern Trust and funded by the Youth Justice Board, the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Positive Activities for Young People, it operates several projects, including a girls' group, mechanics projects for young women and young men and sexual health projects.

The mechanics course, Langley Wheels Project, is a 12-week programme including practical mechanical skills, driver awareness and life-skills workshops. It aims to develop young people's awareness of the consequences of car crime and the costs associated with driving.

The Langley Estate programme also runs Community Merit Awards, a Youth Justice Board initiative that aims to get young people involved in their community. "They did up the shopping centre and planted flowers," says project worker Nicky Brand. "Older people see young people who they would have avoided making an effort to improve the community."

As part of the Community Merit Awards, the young people featured on the programme have also been visiting pensioners on the estate and collecting their vinyl records so that they can turn them into CDs.

According to the Middleton Town Crime & Disorder Partnership, the project has reduced the number of incidents involving young people causing a nuisance in the area, and low-level vandalism.

"Older people see young people who they would have avoided making an effort to improve the community"

Nicky Brand, project worker, Langley Estate Youth Inclusion Programme

ALAN DUNCAN: A BIOGRAPHY

Referred to as "the Bonsai Heseltine" by The Independent's Paul Routledge (a quote flagged up on his web site www.alanduncan.org. uk), Alan Duncan, MP for Rutland and Melton since 1992, was appointed shadow secretary of state for constitutional affairs in November 2003. He has been shadow foreign minister for the Americas, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, shadow minister for trade and industry and shadow health minister, and served on the Social Security Select Committee 1993-95. Duncan wrote Saturn's Children - How the State Devours Liberty, Prosperity and Virtue (Sinclair Stevenson, May 1995).

He was the first sitting Tory MP to openly state that he is gay.

His past statements on youth justice include: "We need to see tougher penalties against those whose criminal and antisocial behaviour is destroying communities across the country."