Norma Hornby thinks the prime minister should consider the views of professional youth workers, Bernard Davies points out the flaws in the all-party parliamentary group’s plans

Statistics quoted in the Guardian confirm that there is a correlation between swingeing cuts to youth services across England and the high incidence of knife crime committed by young people in some communities (Report, 7 May)

The closure of much-needed youth clubs is only the tip of the iceberg because professionally managed and delivered youth provision encapsulates the whole range of services designed to meet the developmental needs of young people, from outreach work, advice and information drop-in sessions, anger management and conflict resolution, to drugs and alcohol advice sessions.

For many young people living in deprived communities, local youth clubs have often been the springboard to opportunities that lead to meaningful employment and lifelong volunteering, and participants have developed a range of skills such as resilience, personal safety and leadership. Outdoor activities and youth-led drama and arts initiatives have been decimated by a government that appears to be driven by austerity measures, with little consideration for ordinary young people.

Although the prime minister has invited a range of professionals to discuss the implications of knife crime in meetings at No 10, the fact that professional youth workers do not appear to have been included is very significant.

Norma Hornby

Warrington, Cheshire

• The all-party parliamentary group’s recognition in its report on knife crime of the positive role played by youth clubs and other youth work provision in young people’s lives is welcome, if somewhat overdue.

The report also adds valuable evidence to that gathered since at least 2014 – for example, by the trade union Unison – on the huge budget cuts to local authority youth services that have resulted in the loss of hundreds of clubs and thousands of jobs.

For youth workers, however, the committee’s starting point and primary focus also carry risks. One stems from its at least implicit preconception of young people as problems with deficits that need to be eradicated. This contrasts sharply with what for most youth workers has to be their top preoccupation: the untapped and perhaps even unrecognised potential of the young people who, by their own choice, have engaged with them.

A second risk, flowing from this, is that any new funding provided for youth work on the back of this report’s recommendations will, in the words of the Cambridgeshire spokesperson, be “targeted … for those children and young people who are most vulnerable”.

Where in these updated forms of “child saving” will there be a priority for what another APPG report defined as “non-formal education that focuses on the personal and social development of participants … through engagement with young people’s culture and community”?

Bernard Davies

Author of Austerity, Youth Policies and the Deconstruction of the Youth Service in England, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

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