Youth service reform is crucial to counter cutbacks, says Loughton

Loughton made the call during a debate at a Conservative Party Conference fringe event hosted by CYP Now and the charity Groundwork UK and chaired by CYP Now editor Ravi Chandiramani.

Loughton told the audience that youth services have been "largely unreformed for too many years".

He suggested that a mixed economy of youth provision, with strong involvement from business, would lead to better quality services, adding that youth centres should expand the range of services they offer to communities.

"I want Myplace youth centres to be the hub for lots of different things, the usual stuff for young people, but companies could also be using the space for training, employers for recruitment of apprentices and young entrepreneurs. We haven't maximised these spaces enough in the past."

Better commissioning

Loughton admitted that youth provision has been hit disproportionately by council cuts, but claimed better commissioning and increased participation would go a long way to making the most out of the services that remain.

"We have some good commissioners around the country and we have some good people who know about running youth services, but we haven't got very many good commissioners who know about good youth services," he said.

"The biggest way in which we should judge whether youth services are working or not is by using young people to assess the services themselves. We need more youth mayors, more UK Youth Parliament members and more youth councils playing a role."

He suggested that every local authority should enlist young people to audit youth services. Their findings could then be used to create a national audit of how well councils are performing in the eyes of young people, he said.

Patrick Shine, chair of the Challenge Network, argued that youth services need to be overhauled, so that they form part of wider community work.

"There is an opportunity to do some really great work as part of whole community engagement, rather than [being] subdivided into youth services," he said. "I would like to see youth-led community services using the energy, insight, local knowledge and possibly the under-employment [of young people] to actually become integral to the solutions, rather than the problem."

Hafsah Ali, a young campaigner from the charity Battlefront, urged the government to address youth unemployment as its number one priority for young people.

"We feel that youth unemployment is the biggest issue facing young people today and we're trying to get as many employers as we can signed up to our work experience scheme," she said.

She added that the term Neet (not in employment, education or training) should be banned, as it fuels negative images. "The word has many negative connotations. If you go onto Urban Dictionary and type in 'Neet', it actually lists a definition that says Neets are young people who sit around on the sofa, living off the dole and don't want a job."

Sir Tony Hawkhead, chief executive of Groundwork UK, warned that the government must urgently put forward a coherent way of tackling youth unemployment. "We are at a crossroads, particularly for young people who live in the poorest neighbourhoods," he said. "We can work alongside them, help empower them and help give them a voice to become part of the solution - or we can wring our hands and wait for those young people to become part of the problem."