The cuts to youth services made in the name of ‘savings’ are giving great cause for concern for the health and well-being of many young people in the UK this summer . More than £100million was removed from Local Authority Services for young people up to March this year, according to the confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services. “Almost 3, 000 full-time staff who work with young people have lost their jobs.”
In my own practice area the posts of Parent Support Advisors, based in schools, who worked with parents to maximise their children’s engagement with learning have been axed. The PSA’s were often a very effective link between home and professional services for vulnerable families, including accompanying teenagers to see their GP or to attend CAMHS appointments. Who will step in to take up their role once their contracts are not renewed ?
MPs on the Education select committee have expressed their disapproval of the trenchant cuts. The committee’s chair, Graham Stuart has said the” disproportionate budget reductions” could have “ dramatic and long-lasting” consequences and an increase in crime was “inevitable”.
See www.guardian.co.uk (30/07/11)
The worst case scenario for a disaffected generation of young people this summer, bored and broke, is a descent into social fragmentation and a rise in crime-with their peers the obvious targets. According to Scotland Yard victims in the age group 13-24 years have increased by 30% between 2008-09 and 2010-11. For all of us working with this population, this is a very concerning trend which has serious and widespread ramifications for the communities in which knife crime is a real reality. As health professionals we need to be mobilizing against this social phenomenon which has relative poverty and social inequality at its centre.
Jane Roberts
jane.roberts@sunderland.ac.uk
31/07/11
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