Our policy update for October 2018

06 November 2018

Welcome to this month’s update on the policy context for London Youth members. See here for our previous policy updates.

Our policy activities

Consultations

We are currently responding to the Labour Party’s consultation on Building a Statutory Youth Service, which closes on the 30^th of November. This is an important opportunity for us to shape youth policy at an early stage and to make a strong case for a strong and sustainably funded youth sector. If you would like to be involved, please get in touch.

Last month, London Youth responded to the Mayor of London’s Sports for All of Us: London Sport Strategy, with input from our members, Coram’s Fields, London Basketball Association (LBA), Mary’s Youth Club, and Pro Touch SA. We strongly support accessible and sustainable community sport provision and the physical, mental, and social benefits it delivers for young people and London’s communities. We have called for the Mayor to ensure that Sports Unites funding reaches the smaller community youth organisations.

You can find all of London Youth’s previous policy consultation responses here.

Open letter: Public health approach to violence in London

At our last Tackling Youth Violence Network meeting, we ran a session on the role of the youth sector in the public health approach to youth violence in London. There have been several large announcements from the Mayor of London and the Home Secretary in recent months about the public health approach. This session was a chance for the network to discuss the public health approach, what it means for the youth sector, and how we can support positive change.

Based on the network’s views in this session, London Youth is preparing an open letter that we will send to the Mayor of London and the Home Secretary in late 2018. We would like as many of our members and network members as possible to sign on. If you want o be involved, please use the link below. We want to:

• Support real change for young people in London
• For the youth sector to have a voice on a public health approach
• State the importance of youth work in tackling youth violence, particularly the need for universal, open access youth provision alongside a public health approach

Politics & Policy

Tracey Crouch MP has resigned as Minister for Sport and Civil Society, the portfolio which includes responsibility for young people, in protest over delays on enacting gambling reform. She has been replaced by Mims Davies MP, who has represented Eastleigh in Hampshire since 2015 and became a junior whip in January of this year and then a junior Minister for Wales in July. The sudden change has reignited calls for a distinct Minister for Youth Affairs, which London Youth supports. We are interested in the new minister’s priorities and the effect on the implementation of the Civil Society Strategy.

Budget 2018

On 29^th October, the Budget was released. While there is slightly more spending included for public services, the Budget does not make any fundamental changes for the youth sector or young people. Key new investment:

• £650 million for adult social care and £85 million for children’s social care
• £20.5 billion in extra funding for the NHS
• £400 million extra for primary and secondary schools
• £2 billion for mental health, including mental health crisis centres, mental health ambulances, and a crisis hotline

Much of the reaction to the Budget has centred on whether it means austerity is over, as the Chancellor and Prime Minister have suggested. The youth sector has felt austerity most directly through the particularly severe cuts to local authorities, which according to London Councils will have experienced a 63% reduction in 2010’s core funding by 2020. Despite welcome investment, London’s boroughs will still have to deliver £2 billion of savings over the next four years and so austerity is very clearly not over.

The Government will undertake a Spending Review in 2019, which will review the allocation of government department’s funding for the years to come. The Fair Funding Review into the allocation of funding to local authorities will also conclude in mid-2019. London’s local government must be put on a sustainable footing and able to deliver vital public services to young people.

Updates

• Vicky Foxcroft MP debated in Parliament the role of  youth organisations in tackling youth violence
• The Resolution Foundation argue that the generational divide between old and young is now a more important political factor than class
• The NCS Trust has appointed new board members
• A United Nations rapporteur is investigating the effects of austerity on the UK
• A ballot of over a million young people found knife crime to be the most important issue
• The Prime Minister has announced that children and young people’s mental health will be reviewed annually
• Big Lottery Fund have announced a £1.2 million Youth Capacity Fund, which includes up to £50,000 for community organisations in Barking & Dagenham
• The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government have announced the £5 million Supporting Families Against Youth Crime Fund
• The Mayor of London has released an updated Our London map of activities for young people
• The Mayor has announced a review of homicide and urgent violence cases, as the first task of the London Violence Reduction Unit
• The Association of Directors of Childhood Services claim that statutory duties on local authorities have grown as funding has been cut

Reports

• The Department for Education have released an investigation into alternative provision, including Pupil Referral Units (PRUs)
• APPG for Youth Affairs and the NYA have released their recommendations from the Youth Work Inquiry
• Equality and Human Rights Commission have released Is Britain Fairer?
• The Government has released A Connected Society: A strategy for tackling loneliness
• Young Women’s Trust have released Working Well? Young people’s experiences of Jobcentre services
• Youth Employment UK have published the Youth Voice Census

Get in touch

Please feel free to get in touch with any questions or to get involved in our upcoming consultation responses.

Samuel Howell, Policy Officer

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