THE FUTURE OF BRITAIN’S YOUNG PEOPLE DEPENDS ON LABOUR

INTERNATIONAL Youth Day came and went last week without too much media attention. And yet unemployment, low pay, zero hour contracts and access to housing have hit young people particularly hard and this Government’s cuts programme is making matters far worse.

However, in contrast to the media’s failure to acknowledge International Youth Day, the public service union, UNISON, published a new report on cuts in youth services, as part of its ‘Damage’ series.

The UK’s youth services: how cuts are removing opportunities for young people and damaging their lives, is now available online at http://www.unison.org.uk/catalogue/22532

The report is based on two pieces of research: a Freedom of Information request sent to every council in the UK, to find out the extent of the cuts in youth services since 2012, and a survey of UNISON members, asking questions about the impact of the cuts on young people and the communities they live in.

The key findings discovered that:

• More than 2000 youth service jobs have been lost since 2012
• 350 youth centres have closed as a result of the cuts
• 41,000 youth service places for young people have been cut
• At least 35,000 hours of outreach work by youth workers have been removed
• Youth service spending has been cut by £60 million since 2012, and since 2010 the figure is £259m

The report makes clear that cuts to youth services lead to increased poverty, crime, higher youth unemployment and an increase in teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. These factors will have major knock-on effects on communities, the criminal justice system, the health service and the economy.

But rather than investing in our young people, this Government is hidebound by its neoliberal ideology, which is causing untold damage to Britain’s future generations. It makes the removal of the Tories and Liberal Democrats at the next election absolutely imperative.

But we also need to make sure that we in the Labour Party offer a genuinely progressive alternative. Implementing a radical programme in Government to create a new social democratic consensus similar to what we achieved in 1945 is essential.

The future wellbeing of Britain depends on us being brave and bold, taking on and defeating the corporate interests who have used globalisation to impoverish millions and enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. Failure is not an option for us!