Youth work changes lives; it gives young people the self-worth, identity and grasp of their place in society that they need to make sense of world. Youth work looks at the whole young person, rather than being constrained by the narrow academic focus which exam pressured teachers have the misfortune of having to work under.

The ‘Labour Campaign for Youth Work’ believes that youth work must survive this Tory government. Through co-operation between Labour councillors, MPs and thinkers; collecting input from the voluntary sector, communities, the private sector and trade unions, we hope to build policies that we can put into practice in our councils and in government that will empower young people to be the best version of themselves.

Most of us have personal experiences of youth work, whether it be through open access youth clubs, targeted services, on the streets, in schools or as part of NCS (the National Citizens Service). Youth clubs often act as focal points for the local community; where government austerity has bitten, many communities have stepped into the gap providing what local authorities can no longer afford or no longer wish to deliver.

Research from Unison shows that under the coalition government between 2012 and 2014 the youth service lost almost £60 million of funding. The youth service changed hugely under five years of the Con-Dems, and looks likely to become an almost unrecognisable service under this new Conservative government. Whilst traditional youth work has been hit by the brunt of the cuts; youth voice structures have largely survived, and central government plans to invest £1.1 billion into the NCS programme over the course of this parliament.

All of this paints a picture of a patchy service, lacking in direction, focus, and consistency.

The ‘Labour Campaign for Youth Work’ is not about bashing councillors making difficult decisions with squeezed budgets, nor about denying that new stakeholders in youth work should have a role to play. We do hope to bring people together to craft a vision for what youth work can do under Labour councils and hopefully under a Labour government in 2020.

Our aim is to look at creative ways for youth work can be used in Job Centres, Citizens Advice Bureaux and schools, as well as to look at models for community and state partnership in the delivery of traditional youth services. We want Young Labour and Labour Students to look at how youth work can be used to engage our harder to reach, and societally oppressed young members. We will also give young Labour activists a platform to share their stories of what youth work has done for them.

Youth work is not a luxury, it is a necessity and the Labour Party should do everything it can to protect and develop it.

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