Almost inevitably, indeed inexorably, given the pace of events, our IDYW national conference, which was to take place on Monday, March 23 at the Ruskin College, has been postponed.

Tilly Vaughan-Fowler, the Event Coordinator at Ruskin has informed would-be participants as follows.

Dear Delegate,

We have been delighted with the response and commitment to the In Defence of Youth Work conference scheduled for the 23rd March. As we write the event is almost sold out.

As you will all be aware, the advent of COVID-19 has created a very difficult and fast moving situation with government advice updating several times a day. As we have delegates travelling both nationally and internationally to attend, we are very sorry to have to inform you that we have had to take the decision to reschedule this event for later in year. We are very much hoping to be able to give you a new date with sufficient notice before too long.

We look forward to seeing you soon and hope you all stay healthy and well.

Obviously the IDYW Steering Group is very disappointed, especially as we feel serious reflection on the post-Election situation is much needed. We don’t think it’s possible to do ‘business as usual’ with the present regime. Hopefully over the next weeks and months we will publish catalysts for critical dialogue on these pages.

In this context we would urge you to sign up to receive notifications of new material on the site,

And in these times dominated still by an ideology that promotes self-centredness and conspicuous consumption it is tempting to close with a quote from John Ruskin, the radical thinker, after whom the College was named.

Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.