Our policy update for April 2019
29 April 2019
Welcome to this month’s update on the policy context for London Youth members. You can find previous policy updates here.
Our policy & media work
Home Office’s Multi-agency Legal Duty Consultation
The Home Office have announced new measures to tackle youth violence. We will be responding to this consultation, which may include a new duty on the public service and possibly charity sector workers to cooperate and share information between agencies.
If you would like or have your views or evidence included in London Youth’s response, please email Samuel Howell using the link below before Friday 17th May.
We will also be holding a consultation workshop at London Youth on Monday 20th May so our members can express their views on the consultation and contribute to our response. Please follow the link below to sign up to attend.
Department for Culture, Media & Sport’s Youth Charter
This month, DCMS announced they would be looking at a new youth charter to give young people a greater say in the policy that affects them. The Government have said they will work with youth sector organisations and young people over the next months to develop the charter. London Youth will be actively engaging with DCMS to ensure that the voice of our network of 450+ member organisations is heard. If you would like to be involved, please follow the link below.
London Youth’s voice
London Youth was quoted in Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’ report Insights on Core Funding, calling for a funders to recognise the effectiveness of unrestricted grant funding to youth organisations. Our submission to the APPG on Youth Affairs’ Youth Inquiry and one of our youth advisory board members were quoted in the inquiry’s final report. Our previous research on the state of the youth sector in London was quoted by Siân Berry AM in her London’s Lost Youth Services Report 2019.
Networks
This month we had meetings of two of our specialist member networks. The Wellbeing and Mental Health Network focused on the theme of online counselling and support for young people and heard from The Mix and Kooth. Our Youth Involvement Network heard about best practice form youth professionals from Leaders in Community and Hackney Quest, and heard about sources of funding and support from the Greater London Authority (GLA) and London Youth.
We will be holding our Tackling Youth Violence Network on 17th May in Ealing and our Employability Network on 23rd May at London Youth.
Updates
- The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Youth Affairs has published the final report from its youth work inquiry. You can find London Youth’s submission to the inquiry here. Among other proposals, the report calls for a separate Cabinet post in the Department for Education to have responsibility for young people’s policy.
- The Prime Minister and Home Secretary hosted a summit on serious youth violence. London Youth was at Number 10 around the summit, ensuring that our members voices were heard. The youth charter and a greater investment in sports for young people were announced around the summit.
- The Department for Education:
- Are consulting on a Review of Post-16 Qualifications at Level 3 and Below in England until 10th June.
- Have received this letter from the Commons Education Committee, noting the relation between knife crime and rates of exclusion in schools.
- Have announced new careers advice resources for young people.
- The Home Office:
- Have increased the Metropolitan Police’s stop and search powers to allow more officers to stop and search anyone in a designated area without needing reasonable grounds for suspicion if may serious violence occur.
- Are consulting with DCMS on an Online Harms White Paper until 1st July, looking at how to keep children and young people safe online.
- Have awarded an additional £346,000 to fight hate crime.
- The London Assembly held a meeting on the ethnicity pay gap in London.
- Resolution Foundation have published a piece about the changing politics of age in the UK.
- NYA are consulting on a Youth Participation Toolkit for the Greater London Authority.
- A National Education Union (NEU) survey has highlighted mental health problems among primary aged children.
- The Local Government Association have highlighted the funding crisis for local authority children’s services.
- A campaign has been launched to end the practice of imprisonment of young people.
Reports & resources
- Impetus PEF published Establishing the Employment Gap, which demonstrates that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are 50% more likely not to be in education, employment or training.
- London Assembly Education Panel published Preventing Secondary School Exclusions.
- #iwill published Increasing Youth Social Action in Place.
Get in touch
Our Policy Advisory Group is the best way for our members to be at the heart of the policy and media work that we do to represent you and the youth sector in London. Please consider joining this email group so we can get in touch about opportunities to engage on specific issues.
Please feel free to get in touch with any questions or to get involved in our upcoming policy work.
