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England is facing a total closure of youth organizations, leaving a generation of vulnerable young people without life-changing support, according to research.
Almost two-thirds of youth organizations earning less than £ 250,000 say they are at risk of closure, and 31% say they may have to close in the next six months.
The forced withdrawal of officially recognized “essential” aid comes at a time when the pandemic has left more than 1.5 million vulnerable young people in critical need of help, according to research by the UK Youth charity.
Responses from 1,759 youth organizations in England revealed that 58% are operating at a reduced level, with another 20% temporarily closed or preparing to close permanently.
The planned closures come against a backdrop of years of chronic underfunding that has already forced the closure of at least 763 youth centers since 2012. A new round of major cuts in youth services from local authorities is expected in the near future.
“There are 1.6 million children from a vulnerable family environment for whom support is irregular or non-existent. Just over half of these children are ‘invisible’ to services, ”said Anna Alcock, UK Youth’s director of engagement and advocacy. “Youth work could be the only answer to help these children; a preventive service that provides support before problems arise. “
The preliminary data, which will be at the center of a more in-depth report released early next year, is in line with recent research by the National Youth Agency (NYA) that found that many youth charities are “out of stock. ”.
“Youth services simply do not have the capacity or the funds to meet the enormously growing needs of young people,” said NYA Executive Director Leigh Middleton. “They have depleted reserves and revenues have been cut in half or more.”
The NYA research found that one in four youth charities will not be able to cover their running costs in the run-up to Christmas, while two out of three will not be able to cover costs in March. It also found that half will not be able to cover operating costs within 12 months.
“We are calling for increased investment in frontline youth services at this time, sustained through any regional closures and emergency measures,” Middleton said.
Anne Longfield, England’s commissioner for children, said the investigation was “shocking but sadly not surprising.”
“A major funder recently told me that he had wanted to invest substantially in youth provision, but when he looked for applications, he found that most of the services he wanted to support had already closed,” he said.
The areas experiencing the largest cuts in youth spending have seen the largest increases in knife and drug-related crime, Longfield said.
“Youth services are the last line of defense for vulnerable children,” he said. “If these kids have a hard time at home and they don’t have the school structure, for whatever reason, and then you take away youth services as well, they are completely alone, with nothing to protect them from physical abuse, – use of drugs and harm, exploitation and grooming “.
Tom Madders, YoungMinds Campaigns Director, said: “For many young people, youth clubs are a lifeline. Without early support for their mental health, the needs of young people often increase, sometimes resulting in crisis and more acute intervention. “
Just over £ 34 million from the £ 750 million emergency fund for coronavirus for charities went to charities for children and young people. The government’s £ 500 million youth investment fund to help transform and increase the capacity of the youth sector, confirmed in the Conservative manifesto in December 2019 and due to start in April 2020, has yet to be spent.
In addition, the government has delayed its review of the legal duty of local authorities to secure local youth services until the summer of 2021 and has suspended local authority reporting on the funding of youth services until 2022.
Matthew Hussey, public affairs manager for the Children’s Society, said another missed opportunity was the chancellor’s spending review in December.
“It was an opportunity to put children’s services, including council-led support for youth such as youth work, on a sustainable basis and give councils the resources they need to rebuild much-needed support for children. and young people, ”he said.
A government spokesperson said: “We recognize the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on young people, which is why we recently announced a £ 16.5 million fund for the youth sector and have provided over £ 60 million to children’s and youth organizations. as part of a larger multi-billion pound support package for charities. “
But the NYA said that by referring to a variety of different funds and commitments for youth work “it simply disguises the shortage of funds specific to the youth sector” and the limited ways the funds can be used: all 16, 5 million pounds, for example, can only be claimed against the income / losses of the second national blockade ”.
Middleton said: “The government’s response confuses the picture by referring to blanket funding ‘for the youth.”
Collapse of youth services
There has been a 71% cut in spending on services for children and young people in England in less than a decade.
Over the same period, spending by local authorities on crisis intervention services for children and young people has increased from £ 5.6 billion to £ 7.2 billion, an increase of 29%.
At the beginning of the decade, crisis intervention represented 58% of spending by local authorities on services for children and young people. This had increased to 78% between 2018 and 2019.
There is a north-south divide: between 2010-11 and 2018-19, spending in the north of England fell three times faster than in the south: -9% compared to -3%.
