Lib Dem Conference 2011: Youth cuts 'are disempowering young people'

The event, chaired by CYP Now editor Ravi Chandiramani at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, heard serious concerns about the lack of involvement of young people in local decision-making because of the speed at which councils had to implement savings.

The demise of the youth opportunity and youth capital funds were also identified as areas that have particularly damaged young people’s trust in the decision-making process.

Chief executive of the Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Service David Wright told delegates that increasing young people’s participation and then suddenly taking it away has damaged trust among young people.

"We saw 10 years of increasing young people’s engagement in the political and democratic process and actually starting to make some real difference," he said. "We are seeing some dividends. But what pulled everyone up short, was in the rush to make changes the youth opportunity funds and youth capital funds got swept away because we had to make savings. The principles got lost, with young people not being involved in that decision making."

Member of Liberal Youth Thomas Hemsley said: "I used to be involved with the youth opportunity fund and that is something that gives young people a choice over the funding that is spent on them. I think that was a fantastic idea.

"The most important thing is empowering young people to speak for themselves."

Tony Hawkhead, chief executive of Groundwork UK, said while cuts were necessary, the way in which they were implemented was poor and challenged the Liberal Democrats to make more of a stand in government about young people’s participation.

"Although I think the need for the cuts was very much proven the way they have been managed has been massively unthought through on no empirical evidence," he said. "I have met very few young people who seem to be cowed and afraid, but they are really angry at the fact that they get so may constraints put around them. If you really want to disempower young people, you give them so many years of support in beginning to show their voice and then you make a whole set of changes, most of them cuts, and you don’t take them into account.

"This is a coalition and I think the Liberal Democrats can have a stronger voice in the areas where the conservatives do not have a clear narrative."

A 24-year-old Liberal Democrat member from Solihull added her concern that while young people are often eager to be involved in their communities, successive decisions have eroded this.

"Young people are empowered and there seems to have been a succession of that empowerment being taken from them," she said. "Some youth policy should be focusing on older people and educating them on the impact they are having on young people."