The unveiling of the government's legislative priorities offered both reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic over the prospects for children and young people over the coming parliament.
Necessity is the mother of invention, so the saying goes. It is a maxim that could be applied to most of the services for children and young people today - being able to do more with less is a key requirement for any chief executive, middle manager or frontline practitioner.
The finding from the Cabinet Office survey that total funding for council youth services fell by 22.3 per cent in the two years up to April 2014 will not come as a huge surprise to many in youth work.