While the types of support services children receive, such as housing, are clearly inadequate, for young adults after their eighteenth birthday they are all but non-existent.
We have concerns around the proposed changes to housing benefit for young people due to come into force next April, particularly the ruling that under-35s will only be entitled to a single room in a shared house.
For many young people who have been caught up in the cycle of disadvantage this is not appropriate. Vulnerable young people trying to get their lives back on track require intense, practical support to help them make this transition. We will save the state money by investing in such services for children and young adults.
Rob Allen, chair, T2A Alliance, and Rob Owen, chief executive, St Giles Trust
Madressahs lack support
The Channel 4 Dispatches programme rightly highlighted the need to safeguard children in madressahs and other UK supplementary education establishments (cypnow.co.uk, 14 February). However, we fear the government is failing to provide adequate support in such schools.
Many of those running supplementary schools lack the appropriate classroom management skills to prevent bad behaviour from occurring. Most do not have recent mainstream teaching experience, but are instead passionate volunteers and, as such, embody the big society vision.
With the minimal support available to supplementary schools due to further diminish from April this year, we urge the government to prioritise prevention over cure and provide funding for a national training scheme for supplementary educationalists.
Joe Hayman, deputy chief executive, ContinYou
Speech therapy fit for a king
While the country seems to be in a frenzy about The King's Speech and subsequent TV programmes surrounding therapist Lionel Logue, it is important that people are reminded that provision for young people, particularly in young offenders institutions, is being cut and sometimes removed (CYP Now, 22 February-7 March).
As we at Rathbone know only too well, poor communication (usually caused by lack of self-esteem) can be a huge barrier to young people in their quest to find work or an education.
Let us hope that some of the limelight from the Oscars renews interest in speech therapy and creates a demand for where it is needed most - so that the disadvantaged might have the same chances as a king.
Peter Gibson, spokesman, Rathbone
Email cypnow@haymarket.com or write to The editor, CYP Now, 174 Hammersmith Road, London W6 7JP.
