Youth Service Provision

Debate between Alex Cunningham and Julie Hilling

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Westminster Hall

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) on securing this debate.

I must declare an interest: I am a youth worker. At least, when I had a proper job before I came to this place I spent almost all my professional life as a youth and community worker, working with young people in communities. A few of us in this place and a few more in the other place were youth and community workers, and we are all in absolute despair at what is happening to our services. I also chair the all-party group on youth affairs, so I try to keep my feet on the ground, although the situation is moving incredibly fast at the moment. Unfortunately, it is not changing for the better; services are being destroyed up and down the country—I will talk a little more about that later.

Let me start with something the Chancellor said in his autumn statement a few minutes ago:

“We have shown in this Parliament that we can deliver spending reductions without damaging front-line public services”.

I wish he were part of this debate so he could see how those budget cuts have totally destroyed front-line services —the youth service in particular.

Let me take hon. Members back to the start of the system. There was an early youth service at the end of the 19th century, when a number of voluntary organisations were set up to work with young people—in particular, those who faced difficulties in the streets and those who worked in the mills, in service and in other places. There were cuts to those services as the years went on, particularly in the 1950s. In 1958, Lady Albemarle produced a report that became the foundation of the modern youth service. The Education Act 1944 provided a statutory basis for the youth service. If hon. Members wonder why I am talking about 1958 and 1944, it is because we always link Acts backwards, and the Education and Inspections Act 2006 contains references to the 1944 Act—I was always confused about that. The 1944 Act set out that local authorities should procure a sufficient youth service.

Sadly, under the previous Tory Government in the 90s, our youth services started disappearing at a rate of knots. I always used to think that perhaps one day I would not be a youth worker, but I never thought that there would be an end of the youth service. In the 1990s, although I still wanted to be a youth worker, there were nearly no jobs left.

The previous Labour Government strengthened the legislation. Unfortunately, some of the first words in the 2006 Act are:

“must, so far as reasonably practicable”.

That is something I hope an incoming Labour Government will sort out. I plead with the Minister to talk to local authorities about what is “reasonably practicable”. If it is reasonably practicable for a local authority to provide library services, education and other services, surely it should still be providing youth services.

The 2006 Act called on local authorities to secure for qualifying young persons in the local authority area—13 to 19-year-olds and people with learning difficulties up to the age of 25—

“sufficient educational leisure-time activities which are for the improvement of their well-being, and sufficient facilities for such activities; and...sufficient recreational leisure-time activities which are for the improvement of their well-being, and sufficient facilities for such activities”.

It states that

“ ‘sufficient educational leisure-time activities’ which are for the improvement of the well-being of qualifying young persons in the authority’s area must include sufficient educational leisure-time activities which are for the improvement of their personal and social development.”

That was later defined to mean youth work.

The Act set out two forms of activity. Educational leisure-time activity aids young people’s social and personal development, and includes activities delivered by youth workers. Recreational leisure-time activities can include provision by youth workers, but it also includes sport, informal physical activities and cultural activities such as music, performing arts and visual arts.

The Government did not totally abandon that commitment. In a policy document on youth services, they reiterated:

“It is…local authorities’ duty to secure, so far as reasonably practicable, equality of access for all young people to the positive, preventative and early help they need to improve their well-being. This includes youth work and other services and activities that:…Connect young people with their communities, enabling them to belong and contribute to society, including through volunteering, and supporting them to have a voice in decisions which affect their lives;…offer young people opportunities in safe environments to take part in a wide range of sports, arts, music and other activities, through which they can develop a strong sense of belonging, socialise safely with their peers, enjoy social mixing, experience spending time with older people, and develop relationships with adults they trust;…support the personal and social development of young people through which they build the capabilities they need for learning, work, and the transition to adulthood…improve young people’s physical and mental health and emotional well-being;…help those young people at risk of dropping out…raise young people’s aspirations, build their resilience, and inform their decisions—and thereby reducing teenage pregnancy, risky behaviours such as substance misuse, and involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour.”

Sadly, the Government, through their devastating cuts, have failed absolutely to enable young people to access those services.

The previous Government’s document “Resourcing excellent youth services” states:

“the purpose of the work must be predominantly that of achieving outcomes related to young people’s personal and social development (as distinct from, say, their academic or vocational learning);…the methods of the work include the extensive use of experiential learning and of small groups (as distinct from, say, a prescribed curriculum and whole-class teaching or individual casework);…the values of the work include the voluntary engagement of young people with skilled adults. This relationship transforms what is possible for young people.”

[Alex Cunningham]

My hon. Friend is talking about how the youth service and youth workers have a very different role to play in supporting young people today. In schools today, there is tremendous pressure on young people. They have got to have their heads down, the curriculum is very tight and they must concentrate on academic subjects. That is all the more reason why they need somebody outside that environment to help them develop in other ways.

[Julie Hilling]

I agree. Anybody who has worked with young people knows that if their heads are not in the right place, they cannot learn. I used to manage a project for looked-after young people, who were put in small groups with qualitative professional workers to work through their issues. Sticking them in a classroom and trying to stuff their heads full of facts was not working. The facts were being kept out by the mess in their lives—they did not know what was going on in their lives and they did not have good relationships with adults. Providing that space did more than allow those young people to be themselves; it enabled them to learn, participate, take part, get ready for work and take up their role in the world. It fulfilled an important part of those young people’s development.

I shall quote from Choose Youth, an organisation that shows that the Government have done something right. They have brought together all the practitioners in the voluntary and statutory sectors in youth work—that was unknown in the past—in an organisation that seeks to defend and promote youth work. Choose Youth says:

“What is youth work and why is it important?...Youth work as a professional educational practice uniquely inspires, educates, empowers, takes the side of young people and amplifies their voice. Unlike other interventions with young people it combines these elements in a relationship that young people freely choose to make with their youth workers. From this relationship a curriculum of learning and activities is developed that build on the positive and enhance social and personal education.”

Youth work is sometimes a place, such as a centre. Sometimes it takes place on the streets, sometimes in projects—in arts or sports projects in a variety of settings. What is unique, however, is that it is, first, an informal relationship that young people can choose to be part of—they do not have to be part of it. Secondly, the relationship is based on their terms; the youth worker tries to find out what young people actually want and need, rather than what the youth worker, as an adult, thinks they want and need. There is, therefore, a voluntary relationship and the ability for young people to develop and to choose their own curriculum.

As a youth worker—I apologise to all the young people I worked with over the years for this—I never had a conversation that was truly about what they thought about “Brookside” the night before or what they did the weekend before, because all those conversations were fundamental starting points for exploring other issues. We would use soaps to talk about date rape, and we would use things that were going on to talk about drugs, sex or relationships. Yes, we would teach young people about condoms and how to have positive sexual relationships, but there was a whole mix when it came to working with young people.

--- Later in debate ---

[Julie Hilling]

That is always hard to quantify, but the issue is important. Over the past few years, people have looked for integrated services, which is the right thing to do, but they have then tried to combine them in one role. Social workers working with young people in care have a vital role, but that adult who befriends young people and works with them on their terms, and who does not have to make sure that they are home by 9 o’clock at night, they have done their homework or they have eaten their greens, is also vital.

My hon. Friend is right that the cost of young people who enter the penal system is enormous, and I will come to the figures in a moment. We are spending about £100 per year per young person on youth work, compared with the hundreds of thousands of pounds we spend to keep people in the penal system because we could not spend a pittance on them before. It is estimated that if we spent £350 per year per young person, that would fund the proper youth service we are talking about.

Another issue the Government have led us to is working just with the young people who are most in need—those who are not in education, employment or training. Of course we need to work with those people, but the more cuts we make to the service that gathers most young people, the more people will fall to the bottom of the net and need a more specialist service to get them out. The youth service is a good vehicle for enabling all young people to have that same positive relationship.

Let us talk about some of the cuts. In 2010, Sheffield had 41 youth clubs; in 2013, that was down to 23. Since 2013, of course, there have been further cuts, and those cuts are continuing. In the north-west, Manchester disestablished its youth service. It is still putting £1.3 million into the voluntary sector, but that is now up for grabs, and it is likely to disappear. Oldham is getting rid of everything apart from one myplace centre. In Trafford, all provision is on the table to go completely, although a housing association might pick some up. In St Helens, there is a 77% cut, and it now has only 28 hours of delivery at the most.

In Lancashire, half the budget has gone, and it is now looking at further cuts. In Tameside, the budget is almost gone. In Stockport, it is gone. Sefton faces huge cuts. In Liverpool, the budget is gone. Bolton faces massive cuts. Wigan now faces an 80% cut. Cheshire West now has four professional youth workers—I am sure they know individually every one of the young people they are supposed to be working with. The one little bit of success is in Knowsley, where youth workers and young people have set up a project together and are running the services.

The picture across the country is devastating. The smallest cut is 50%. A lot of areas have cuts of 75%. Now, particularly in the period going forward, a lot of areas are cutting budgets completely. These authorities have a statutory duty to provide a service, and I will come back to that in a minute.

We are losing the professional expertise and the co-ordination across the piece. Even when there is money to go into the voluntary sector, there is nobody there to co-ordinate that spend. Indeed, I was told yesterday of a local authority that is now looking to the regional youth service unit to provide it with some infrastructure, because the local authority’s infrastructure has completely disappeared.

It is now difficult to ascertain what is left of many services. Some are youth and play, while some are just youth support services. The whole designated youth service budget has gone completely. What saved the Wigan youth service in the late ’80s was the fact that the local authority had to spend a percentage of its education budget on the youth service. We had a great influx of money, and we doubled the number of youth workers. Legislation is important, and it should be implemented.

If we ask people in a neighbourhood what they want, they say they want youth centres for young people to go to. They do not want young people hanging around on street corners with nothing to do; they want them to have positive relationships. In that respect, early-day motion 488 now has more than 100 signatures, and 38 Degrees—I agree with this 38 Degrees petition—is encouraging people to sign a petition.

One of the Minister’s predecessors did a survey of local authorities’ youth service spending. As far as I am aware, it has never come to light. Can the Minister enlighten us about what happened to it, or whether it exists? Certainly, Unison did freedom of information requests on some local authorities and discovered that at least 2,000 jobs had gone. Given that there were only 7,000 in the first place, that is an enormous percentage. Some 350 youth centres closed and 41,000 youth services places were lost. As has been mentioned, a place in the criminal justice system costs £200,000 per annum.

I quote again from the Choose Youth manifesto:

“Youth work contributes significantly to early intervention and preventative services thereby reducing the incidence of young people in need of highly targeted intensive and expensive services later on.

For example, the Audit Commission report into the benefits of sport and leisure activities in preventing anti-social behaviour by young people estimates that a young person in the criminal justice system costs the taxpayer over £200,000 by the age of 16. But one who is given support to stay out costs less than £50,000. Other comparative costs include: £1,300 per person for an electronically monitored curfew order. £35,000 per year to keep one young person in a young offender institution. £9,000 for the average resettlement package per young person after custody.”

Youth work is a cheap, efficient alternative to all those other intervention measures. The National Youth Agency used to be paid to collate a survey of spending on local authorities. It can no longer do that work because it is no longer paid to do it.

The youth service profession are qualified workers, not just people who turn up on a Friday night and decide that they will play with young people. A youth work qualification is equivalent to a teaching qualification. The qualification and training are as rigorous as those for other caring professions such as social work and teaching. Youth work is now a degree profession and youth workers are highly trained and qualified. They support volunteers in their work. For every pound spent, £8 comes back in action by volunteers. The work is cost-effective in all sorts of ways, but it is about professional service. Most of us would not want an unqualified teacher to be standing in front of a class and teaching. Most of us would not want an unqualified doctor to treat us or an unqualified nurse to deal with us. Why then should we accept unqualified youth workers working with young people?

[Alex Cunningham]

I am delighted that my hon. Friend is paying tribute to youth workers and their professionalism, in what is now a degree-entry profession. They do tremendous work, and for so little pay; it is not a well rewarded profession financially, although it is in other ways. Could my hon. Friend recommend it as a career choice in the current environment?

[Julie Hilling]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. I went to Huddersfield to talk to a group of students a couple of weeks ago, and asked them much the same question. They are still as dedicated and committed, and they may well get jobs, but not as youth workers, because the skills of youth workers and the methodology of youth work are wanted by many other professions. Really, however, we should hope that they can employ their core skills in working with young people.

Finally—I recognise I have gone on for rather a long time—it is a false economy to remove youth services, and to work with young people only when they are already in trouble or at risk of getting into trouble. The Minister needs to make local authorities live up to their statutory duties, and not just ignore the legislation that says there is a statutory basis for the youth service. Of course that needs strengthening and I hope that the next Labour Government will strengthen it. We have seen how easily an incoming Government can water down regulation. However, there is regulation and legislation. The Government should live up to their promise to young people and enforce the legislation to make sure that we have a sufficient youth service in every area of the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alex Cunningham and Julie Hilling

Monday 30th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Julie Hilling (Bolton West) (Lab)]

6. What assessment he has made of recent trends in the level of rent arrears in social housing.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

7. What assessment he has made of recent trends in the level of rent arrears in social housing.