UK Youth: How does the lack of youth groups in the UK affect young people?

What more needs to be done to help young people in the UK?

Transcript

00:00UK Youth recently did some research looking at the link between youth centre closures

00:04and crime in an area after the closures happened. What we found was the preventative impact

00:10of youth work is really important, and when it goes away, the certain kinds of criminal

00:15activities including bike thefts, shoplifting, re-offending rates, and certain kinds of weapons

00:22possession increased in the year following these centre closures. There's a really important

00:26preventative role of youth work here in helping young people make good decisions and to stay

00:31out of trouble, and the more that we cut back on youth work, the riskier those young people's

00:36lives become. So a youth worker is a trusted adult who's there to support a young person's

00:42emotional and social development. So they're there not to try and get them to pass an exam

00:48or to behave in a certain way, they're there to try and understand what does that young

00:51person care about, what are the things that are important to them, what are the challenges

00:55they've got in their life, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them to help them navigate

00:59those challenges and to find the solution.

01:01What kind of impact do you think this is having on young people in the UK today? What have

01:05you seen in your job role?

01:08It's a really hard time to be a young person. It's always tricky growing up trying to find

01:13your place in the world, trying to figure out who you are and how you can make a difference,

01:18but doing that at a time of such kind of global uncertainty, coming out of the pandemic and

01:22the disruption that caused for young people, the cost of living crisis, broader global

01:27events that are causing challenges, and we've all seen the headlines around young people's

01:32mental health needs and employment needs getting worse. It's just a really hard time to be

01:35a young person.

01:38We're pretty encouraged that the new government in their manifesto included a number of specific

01:43commitments to youth work, recognising the value it could have. So these Young Futures

01:47Hubs the government is proposing to create, which are bringing together lots of professionals

01:51who have an important role to play in supporting young people, bringing them together to deliver

01:56their services more effectively. They've recognised the role of youth workers within that.