Labour has chance to shape the future of youth policy

Not long ago, the similarly "unelectable" Alexis Tsipras rallied sufficient support for his Syriza Party in Greece to form a government. Admittedly, in power, he was forced to renege on many of his promises. He capitulated to the Troika overseeing the Greek debt crisis, in return for a third bailout and keeping Greece within the Eurozone. But he was returned to power when he called a further snap election this month, continuing to assert that he will continue to challenge inequality and work in the interests of the poor.

Both leaders were propelled to their positions on platforms of anti-austerity, social justice and equal opportunities. Tsipras was portrayed as a young upstart. Corbyn is usually described as an old rebel, but both have campaigned for similar principles and values. Corbyn may have been lambasted and praised in equal measure for the appointments to his shadow cabinet (for example, no women in the top jobs, but a majority of women overall), but of greatest significance for our field is the appointment of Gloria de Piero as shadow minister for young people and voter engagement.

Young people rarely get such an explicitly high profile in political portfolios anywhere in Europe. For sure, they routinely feature prominently in ministries of youth and sports, but invariably it is sports that dominate the agenda; responsibility for youth is usually delegated to a state secretary subordinated to the minister, often a politician from a minority party making up the coalition numbers (as currently in Romania and Serbia). In that regard, they can be well informed and committed to youth policy development, but have relatively limited clout to make it happen.

Elsewhere, youth can be placed within ministries of education, frequently rendered almost invisible in relation to the schools agenda. Occasionally (as currently in Lithuania and Albania respectively), the youth portfolio lies in other ministries like social security and social welfare. The extent of attention given to young people in these cases is very unpredictable.

What is never in doubt is that political developments for young people demand a focused and well-argued strategy for youth, premised on principles of positive opportunities and experiences. Too often, this fails to materialise. Youth policy is patchy across key areas of young people's lives (notably education, training and employment, health, housing and crime) and the cross-cutting issues attached to these, such as youth information, participation and social inclusion.

It is equally fragmented as young people make a range of transitions through their teenage and young adult years - from education to the labour market, families of origin to families of destination, and dependent to independent living. Moreover, policy that does exist is often developed from stereotypes and assumptions rather than balanced knowledge and evidence, and, as a result, based on coercion and enforcement rather than consent and motivation. Recent measures and announcements are likely to compound this felony.

De Piero's senior place and specific brief gives her an opportunity to shape the jigsaw and mosaic of youth policy in a clear and purposeful form. Corbyn has already made a commitment to putting the youth service on a statutory footing. Before him, Ed Miliband made some kind of commitment to a root and branch review of youth work, which is actually what is needed. As transitions are further extended and become ever more complex, we need to address the stepping stones required as well as the relationships between formal and non-formal learning and development. De Piero would seem to have an open door to take this on.

Even the "voter engagement" component of her portfolio could strengthen the youth policy and practice commitment of the Labour Party, given what we know about the need to promote youth voice and participation as a precursor to civic engagement and combating the democratic deficit. And then, if the unelectable is elected, a new version of old Labour would be ready and able to hit the ground running, just as it was with new Labour in 1997, when a range of reasonably purposeful and positive de facto youth policy measures (on school inclusion, teenage pregnancy, jobless young people, housing and homelessness, young people leaving care, young offenders), now long forgotten by most, were by and large effectively established.

Howard Williamson is professor of European youth policy at the University of South Wales