Editorial: Is an opportunity card the answer?

The card was to be the government's flagship youth initiative and would give every young person in England a smartcard that could be topped up with money to be spent on activities.

Following the failure of a similar Connexions scheme, it was understandable that the youth sector had concerns over costs and whether money would be best spent on frontline services. After months of deliberation, the scheme was shelved in February 2007, but £14.5m was later made available to run pilot schemes in nine areas. As this month's feature shows (see p14), those pilots are now providing young people entitled to free school meals and those in care with up to £40 a month to spend on activities.

No doubt the young people who are eligible for these schemes are enjoying the benefits of taking part in activities they previously could not afford. And no doubt they and their youth workers would argue for the scheme to continue beyond next March when the pilots are due to end. Yet still the wider questions raised back in 2005 remain. Is this the best way to spend significant amounts of government funding?

A study by the National Foundation for Educational Research into the pilots should go some way to providing the answers when it is produced next summer. But even if it praises the initiative highly, careful thought needs to be given before any extension is granted. Anything that could potentially divert money away from core youth projects must be heavily scrutinised in these tough economic times.