OPINION: The Ferret ... digs behind the headlines

A press release was issued last week giving a change of address for a well-known charity. Its new address turns out to be conveniently situated in the very place where people who live in cloud cuckoo land go when they want to escape for a fantasy break.

Not really. But close. The press release was actually announcing a fundraising effort by The Children's Society aimed at channelling some young people's money in their direction.

It is a telephone fundraising campaign. Young people are invited to dial a premium line number costing 1.50 a minute. Callers can listen to various celebrities including Tony Blair, who "personally recorded an insightful story concerning how he felt as a 10-year-old when his father suffered a stroke".

The fundraising bit comes because around 1 of each call goes to the charity. This is where we take a mini-break from fantasy island into deepest la-la land. They are hoping to raise 1m.

The director of fundraising believes that the scheme will appeal to young people. "Many have more disposable income than previous generations and, as primetime TV programmes have shown, are happier to spend it on the telephone," he says.

Two points, Mr Fundraiser. First, I wouldn't judge what young people do by watching the telly. Second, young people use phones to communicate with each other, play games and have fun. The notion that one million of them are going to spend good time and money listening to recorded reminiscences of the struggles that older people had when they were young is a bit far-fetched. Don't bank on it.

The youth affairs unit at De Montfort University is sure going to be busy measuring things. Not only is it evaluating Connexions, but it is now sharpening its Geiger counters and callipers ready to measure the impact of youth work in England.

Big job this. You have to decide what you think youth work is meant to achieve before you can whip out your impact-ometer and take a reading.

And, of course, everyone you meet has a different idea of what youth work is for.

A simpler idea doing the rounds is that someone should just draw the impact, as in a cartoon or poster. Then we could show the pictures to the Treasury, which would realise how important youth work is and fund it properly. Neat, eh? And cheap, too.