Choose Youth, an umbrella group of 35 national organisations (including IDYW) that was formed in 2010 to oppose the destruction of youth services, has published its contribution to the Labour Party’s call for evidence on ‘building a statutory youth service’. The deadline to contribute to this important consultation has been extended to 30th November – click here for more details and to submit your evidence.

The summary of Choose Youth’s recommendations is listed below for convenience, although the evidence is worth reading in full: Building a Statutory Youth Service Choose Youth

• As a result of this consultation, there must be a guarantee that the explicit commitment to a statutory Youth Service goes in the Labour Manifesto and confident public policy announcements follow from this consultation.
• As an initial step, youth work must be returned to the oversight, in all ways, of education both nationally and locally.
• We believe that there is an urgent need for a Minister for Youth with cross departmental powers and the necessary underpinning official and parliamentary structures and we welcome the Consultation document’s advocacy of new powers for the relevant Minister.
• The informal education method should be celebrated and knowledge of it shared again.
• There must be renewed investment in the endorsement bodies, the Education and Training Standards boards.
• There must be special placement funding allocations to youth work training courses.
• There must be a license to practice and protection of the title youth worker, this is easy to enact.
• There must be a reintroduction of a specialist core of Ofsted Inspectors to monitor and report on youth work delivery.
• We note the recent studies of poor attendance levels on the NCS and note consistent reports that those young people who need most support are not involved with this service. A significant review is needed.

Let us know what you think, and what we should include in our own evidence (which we are in the process of writing…)