Labour promises 'root and branch' review of youth services
Joe Lepper
Friday, April 17, 2015
The Labour Party has pledged to carry out a fundamental review of youth service provision if it wins the general election.
The pledge is one of a number of measures outlined in its Youth Manifesto, which launched today.
Publication of the document comes just three days after CYP Now revealed that the party had ditched its previous pledge to make youth services statutory if it wins the election.
Instead, the youth manifesto states that the party "will review the provision of youth services to ensure that they are high quality and accessible".
"The root and branch review will examine innovative approaches to youth services and how to ensure young people have the power to shape the design and delivery of services in their area," the manifesto adds.
Earlier this week Labour's shadow children's minister Steve McCabe said the party prefers "commissioned youth services provided at local community level by a range of organisations".
He said the "major issue" of identifying proper funding for youth services, was preventing the party pursuing a policy of making them statutory.
Other pledges in the youth manifesto include a promise to ban unpaid internships lasting longer than four weeks.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said putting careers in sought-after jobs in the arts, media, fashion, finance and law, out of reach for huge numbers of highly able young people, was "not fair".
"It's not right," he said.
"And it prevents our companies drawing on all the talents our nation has to offer.
"So we'll put a stop to it. We will ban firms from offering more than four weeks' unpaid work experience."
The move has been backed by campaign group Intern Aware, which has released a YouGov poll of businesses suggesting that the move would not reduce the number of opportunities for young people to take up internships.
It found that for 62 per cent of businesses, paying long-term interns would make no difference to the number they take on.
One in ten said it would make them more likely to hire interns, while the same proportion said it would make them less likely.
Ben Lyons, co-founder of Intern Aware said: "This pledge would make a real difference to thousands of young people entering the job market.
"Businesses are crying out for clarity on internships and the four-week limit offers that as well as vastly increasing the pool of talent they can draw on. We hope this pledge is the start of a change in the political weather around getting young people into work."
Labour's Youth Manifesto also reiterates pledges made in its full manifesto to guarantee a paid starter job for all young people unemployed for more than a year as well as boost vocational opportunities for pupils.