Our policy update for November 2018
05 December 2018
Welcome to this month’s update on the policy context for London Youth members. You can find previous policy updates here.
Our policy work
Champion London Youth
In our our new campaign, Champion London Youth, we’ve joined forces with the sportswear brand Champion to challenge negative stereotypes about young people. The campaign comes to life through a collection of limited edition T-shirts inspired by the personal stories of five young people we work with and available at the Champion Store (45-50 Brewer St, Soho) and through Urban Outfitters. You can watch some of the stories from the young that inspired the campaign in the video below.
High quality, open access youth work in the local community should be something that every young Londoner can rely on. That’s why the campaign includes an open letter to Mims Davies MP, the new Youth Minister, calling for a significant reinvestment in youth work. We strongly encourage all of our members and supporters to sign the letter below so we can show the collective strength of feeling across London.
Consultations
We responded to the Labour Party’s consultation on Building a Statutory Youth Service. You can read our full response here.
We strongly supports a commitment to put the youth sector on a statutory basis. Access to free, high-quality youth provision for all, to complement the education system, is essential to supporting young people’s physical, mental, and social wellbeing and supporting their transition to adulthood.
We acknowledge that this policy is in its initial stages of development and note that the current version has not fully developed several important areas about the structure and role of the proposed statutory youth service. We welcome further clarification of these issues and have encouraged the Labour Party to work with us on further targeted consultation with young people and community youth organisations.
Other updates
- London Youth is now a member of the Practitioner Working Group that is advising the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) on the design of the new public health approach-based London VRU. We are talking to MOPAC about consultation with young people and the youth sector. We will continue to update members on the progress of this unit.
- On the 1st of November, we held a youth work celebration at City Hall, hosted by Siân Berry AM as part of National Youth Work Week. You can find two excellent speeches from the night here and here.
- We attended the London Conference, where Rosemary Watt-Wyness asked a question of the Mayor about racial disparity in youth employment.
- Four members of Dare London, our youth advisory board, spoke at the Greater London Authority (GLA)’s Children’s Rights Inquiry at Parliament on issues including youth violence and mental health.
Politics & Policy
Cat Smith MP, Shadow Minister for Youth Affairs, wrote an article about Labour’s consultation on a statutory youth service.
Vicky Foxcroft MP has secured a debate in Parliament on the role of the public health approach in reducing youth violence to be held on Thursday 13th December. A previous adjournment debate was held in October, but was limited due to relevant ministers not being present and the type of debate meaning a vote was not held.
Updates
- The Mayor of London has committed a further £1.3 million to apprenticeships in retail, hospitality and construction for young people. He is calling for the Government to devolve responsibility and funding for adult apprenticeships.
- All projects funded in the first year of the Young Londoners Fund have now been announced. The next round of funding will open in March 2019.
- The Justice Secretary has blocked the Home Secretary’s plans for custodial sentences, dubbed “knife ASBOs”, for 10 to 17 year olds caught with offensive weapons.
- The Commons Science & Technology Committee is continuing its inquiry into the impact of social media on young people’s health.
- The Lords Intergenerational Fairness & Provision Committee has taken evidence on the roles of housing policy, employer practice, and the tax system in fairness between the generations.
Reports & resources
- Unison have produced Youth Services at Breaking Point, an update to their 2016 report on the effects of austerity on youth services. Across the UK between 2011/12 and 2018/19, there has been £400 million of funding and 4,544 youth worker jobs lost to the sector.
- London Councils have produced this useful guide to understanding Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
- The Department for Education have updated Characteristics of Children in Need: 2017 to 2018.
Get in touch
Please feel free to get in touch with any questions or to get involved in our upcoming consultation responses.
