Labour pledges to make statutory youth services an election promise
Neil Puffett
Monday, November 19, 2012
Labour has confirmed plans to make youth services statutory if the party gains power at the next general election.
Under proposals being drawn up between now and the next election – which is due in May 2015 – local authorities would become legally bound to provide a minimum level of provision for young people.
Karen Buck, Labour’s shadow minister for young people, told CYP Now that her party is “very concerned” that local authorities feel able to pass on “massively disproportionate cuts to youth services” as a result of the economic climate.
“Delivery of a quality youth service has to be an essential role for local government whether directly provided or commissioned,” she said. “Clearly we have to protect that by making it a statutory service.”
Buck said work is now under way to determine what a minimum level of youth service provision would look like.
“We know it is going to look different in rural Wiltshire to inner city London – you cannot define it in the same way as education or child protection services,” she said.
“But we will develop a framework for determining how local authorities will be able to demonstrate they have met the conditions for such a service. Between now and the next election we will be putting more flesh on the bones.”
Buck said the fine detail of the framework would draw from ongoing work, including the National Youth Agency’s work on sufficiency, the former Labour government’s Every Child Matters document and the work of the Department for Education-funded Catalyst consortium.
“We will be requiring local authorities to audit their provision and outline how they are meeting that need whether directly provided, or commissioned,” she added.
“The whole point of having a statutory service is that local authorities will not be able to say that they have discharged their duty to provide a youth service, simply by having some form of provision, somewhere within the local authority.”
The emerging policy has been backed by the National Youth Agency (NYA). Fiona Blacke, NYA chief executive, said: “We are very happy that Labour is in dialogue with the sector with a view to making youth services statutory.”
Labour is currently carrying out a policy review on youth services that includes looking at the case for locating youth clubs in schools.
