The Government's long-awaited document, Youth Matters, was launched by the DfES on Monday. It aims to give young people 'places to go and things to do' based around the five outcomes in Every Child Matters.
Proposals include a new statutory duty on local authorities, through children's trusts, to provide 'positive activities for young people' and a youth 'opportunity card', which will offer discounts and top-ups to help more young people get involved in activities.
Local authorities will be given 40m over two years from April 2006 to develop new approaches to strategic investment in youth facilities, and a 30,000 Opportunity Fund for each authority to help young people create the local services they want.
The National Children's Bureau welcomed the recognition of young people's right to be involved in designing and delivering services, and that 'more needs to be done for vulnerable or disadvantaged young people' to ensure their progress does not fall behind their peer group.
But it said that when assessing the information and advice needs of young people, the paper 'did not go far enough' in recognising how those needs change between the ages of 13 and 19.
NCB chief executive Paul Ennals said, 'Putting the Green Paper into practice will unquestionably be challenging for all those who provide public services, at local as well as national level - but we owe it to young people to make the challenge work.' He said the 'real test' will be in whether its proposals are delivered.
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said that the youth opportunity card has the potential to establish a direct 'deal' with young people about their responsibilities which could set important boundaries and expectations of behaviour. But she said, 'It will be relatively costly and has the potential of diverting much needed funds from youth provision to more sporadic activities.'
She said that the paper creates a 'strong policy space to build upon'. But she warned, 'It is not yet certain whether this paper is backed up with the levels of funding or investment, nor, potentially, the national leadership needed to make this happen.'
4Children's Make Space campaign estimates that 100m a year for five years is needed to reform youth services in England. Ms Longfield added, 'It took many years to build the case for investment in Sure Start. This kind of debate and evidence building now needs to take place in the youth sector looking at the 2008 spending review and beyond as an urgent priority.'
The consultation period runs until 4 November. See www.dfes.
gov.uk/publications/youth.
