Labour 'vows to protect youth services and children's centres from cuts?'
Neil Puffett
Thursday, May 11, 2017
A Labour government would protect youth services from further funding cuts, a leaked version of the party's general election manifesto suggests.
Children's centres and youth services have been two of the worst-affected areas of the children and young people sector as a result of central government's drive to cut costs since 2010.
Analysis by CYP Now earlier this year revealed that there has been a reduction of more than 1,000 official children's centres in England with 2,501 as of February 2017, compared with 3,631 in 2010. Meanwhile, government figures show that spending on youth services was cut by £99.1m between 2014/15 and 2015/16.
Labour's draft manifesto indicates that the party will seek to arrest the decline in both service areas.
"Under the Conservatives nearly £400m has been cut from youth services and over 600 youth centres have closed," the draft manifesto states.
"Labour will end the cuts to youth services."
"Sure Start, and the support it gives to vulnerable and hard-to-reach mothers, was one of the great achievements of the previous Labour government, but under the Conservatives 1,200 Sure Start centres have been lost.
"Labour will protect Sure Start and ensure that no more centres close."
The draft manifesto also reveals plans to extend free childcare provision to all two-year-olds, and gives some indications of policy direction in terms of children's social care.
This will include "strengthening" the way professionals are required to report suspected abuse or neglect, a focus on preventing children from entering care, and the possible creation of a new national fostering agency.
"We will continue to support all training routes for social workers, including Frontline, and will prevent the private sector running child protection services," the document states.
"We will deliver earlier protection to victims of abuse by strengthening mandatory reporting.
"And we will refocus social care to work with families in local communities, to prevent children becoming at risk of care."
The document adds that Labour will support further regulation of commercial fostering agencies, as well as commissioning a review into establishing a national fostering service.
