We’re letting down our children with youth service

Are we doing enough to protect our young people from violence and drug abuse? A recent report from the advocacy group Liberty finds that one of the key issues in our failing to protect vulnerable young people is the “gutting of youth services over the past decade”, and in 2020 the former Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill cited the cutting of youth services in the county as a reason for an increase in youth offending. The problem started in 2016, when the former Dorset County Council withdrew funding and the direct delivery of youth clubs, forcing any local community that wished to retain its youth club to organise its own.

By KELVIN CLAYTON West Dorset Green Party

The results in Dorset have been mixed, with some faring better than others, but all our youth clubs face three major issues. The major threat to their survival is funding. Whilst a few, like Dorchester & Bridport, receive life-saving grants from their town council, all survive by a constant round of funding applications –effectively a survival lottery. This funding is needed to not only pay for youth workers, but in many cases to safely maintain the buildings that house the clubs.

Another problem is the recruitment of youth workers. With the loss of local authority delivery of youth work has come the erosion of youth work as a profession. A similar process has happened to one of my former occupations, the careers service – now pretty much extinct. I can be very critical of Tony Blair’s New Labour government, but one thing they got right was the formation of the Connexions service – a thoroughly joined-up and fully-funded support service for our young people. But the coalition government of 2010 heralded the slow death of this professional approach.

A third, related, problem is the loss of a co-ordinated approach to helping protect our vulnerable young people. Yes, the new Dorset Council does offer some opportunity for people working with young people to share their concerns, and the Dorset Youth Association (itself a charity) does a great job in supporting those youth clubs and youth workers who want to work with them, but it’s not enough. It’s far too easy for at risk young people to fall through the net.

Our young people deserve better than this. I know that the young people of Dorset don’t face the same levels of violence as those living in our inner cities, but they deserve somewhere safe to meet, to express their creativity, and to receive support for the issues they face. They deserve a fully funded, professional and coordinated youth service.