Keep a young hand on purse strings

The young people were either the beneficiaries of funding or involved in the decision-making panels that judge applications.

Now the very future of these schemes and, indeed, the direction of youth participation in general hangs in the balance.

Last month, the government removed the ringfence around the remaining £40.8m left to spend on the youth opportunity fund, essentially leaving it up to adult decision-makers to decide how this money is spent. The removal of the ringfence makes it highly likely that the new government won't continue the fund in its current guise when it announces its public sector spending plans in the autumn.

But as our cover feature this month shows, it is a move that could prove highly unpopular with young people. Over the past four years, young people from all backgrounds have given up their free time to write funding applications and sit on decision-making panels with the simple aim of trying to make the places where they live better for young people.

Last autumn, the now junior children's minister Tim Loughton said the Conservatives were looking into potentially providing a scaled-down version of the youth opportunity fund where local authorities would "pitch for pots of funding" for youth engagement schemes. There has been no further information but such a concept would tie in neatly with the government's streamlined expenditure plans.

Whatever the government's plans for youth services, it must let young people themselves retain a hand on the purse strings. Young people need to be guiding adults about where money should be spent, not vice-versa.

Andy Hillier, editor, Youth Work Now