CUTS AND CONTRADICTIONS : THE CASE OF SOUTHAMPTON

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Thanks to andyclow.com

We are very pleased to receive this passionate and incisive account of the youth work situation in Southampton from Ryan Karter. Amongst other things it warns against a naive resurrection of faith in One Nation Labour. Importantly it opens up a fresh engagement with the dominant mantra of the youth work campaign against cuts : that if you close youth services, there will be an increase in social problems of all kinds. This emphasis on youth work as being primarily about prevention and welfare rather than education is deeply problematic. In a recent article Filip Coussee argues:

Youth workers are increasingly judged on the basis of efficiency criteria. They should support individual young people so that the end result of their work is less joblessness, fewer teenage pregnancies, less drug use, fewer school drop-outs etc. Of course youth workers should not turn their backs on social problems, but can they really solve huge social problems rooted in economic inequalities and social justice with rather modest interventions in the individual lives of young people?

We need to revisit this contradiction in a serious debate about both our significance and insignificance. In the meantime read Ryan’s challenging expose.

The folly of youth services cuts

By Ryan Karter, MA

Youth and Community Worker

 

Young people are the future; they represent the next generation of leaders, policy makers, workers and parents, who will determine which direction Britain takes. That is why local authority youth services are so invaluable. They provide support, guidance and advice for some of the most vulnerable children and young people within their local communities.

 

It was recently reported by BBC News that around £245 million is spent each year detaining 1,600 young people, with 70% of those re-offending. In contrast, it has been calculated that for as little as £350 a year per young person, all of them could have access to youth services within their local area, providing support that enables them to find employment and training, keeps them off the streets, and encourages them to engage in positive activities in their communities. This is a vast divergence to potentially becoming engaged in crime that is costly to all of society.

 

With this in mind it would seem to be axiomatic that funding for youth services should at the very least, be ring-fenced. Ideally local authority youth service provision should be made statutory so that it is considered of equal priority to quality schooling and social services. Yet, in the current climate of austerity the opposite appears to be happening. With an estimated 3,000 full time youth service job cuts since the Coalition’s inception in 2010, the future is looking bleak. As each local authority faces its annual budget cut, the youth service is often the first service to go. 7,000 professionally qualified staff, 30,000 trained youth support workers and half a million volunteers are at risk of being axed.

 

The current Coalition government argues that because youth services are not a statutory provision they should only be an optional requirement. Yet it is not just the Coalition who refuse to protect youth services, as the example of Southampton City, a Labour run council, illustrates so dramatically. In the 2013/2014 annual Southampton City budget statement, it was announced that the council planned to rid the city of its local youth services in their entirety. This action is apparently “painful, but necessary” due to the nature of the budget cuts being imposed upon them centrally, a statement put into a proper perspective when you examine the staggering wage bill for Southampton Council.

 

Chief Executive Alistair Neill is on an annual salary of £167,753. This is £25,000 more than our Prime Minister David Cameron’s salary of £142,500. The combined income of the 11 most senior posts within Southampton City Council was £955,148 in 2011/12. There were 49 staff on a salary of £75,000 or more, and 254 on £50,000 or more, with the combined annual income of these 254 personnel adding up to £21.3 million.

 

The youth service currently costs Southampton Council £730,000 (just 0.0000006% of the estimated £1 trillion+ national debt) per year, with 29 employees. Yet this provision is now to be completely wiped out. This example is typical of what is happening at local level. The Coalition Government’s neo-liberal agenda, (allowing local authorities to have more freedom and choice in what they spend their budgets on), is supposed to be a positive step forward in giving more power to communities at the local level. Yet, how many residents of Southampton would be happy to see their taxes paying for the absurdly inflated salaries of council personnel?

 

Through the period of 2010 to 2012, I met with my local MP Vincent Cable several times to voice my concerns about cuts to local youth services. I had several months of unsatisfactory responses via Dr Cable from Michael Gove, Minister of Education and Tim Loughton, Children’s Minister (the man in charge of youth services at a national level). In his final letter (dated 16 March 2012) Dr Cable said to me, “For a mixture of reasons, a commitment hasn’t been carried through in government and now depends on local commitment and delivery rather than central government. I am frankly embarrassed that as a constituent you haven’t had better responses.” Coming from a senior member of government, this says it all. It is worth noting that both the Liberal Democrats and Labour claim they want youth service provision to become statutory at the local level in their manifestos. Yet here we see a Labour council axing an entire youth service completely. Who can we trust?

 

Since May 2010, University tuition fees have trebled, the EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) has been abolished and the Future Jobs Fund has been axed. With nearly 1 million 16-24 year olds currently unemployed, the swingeing cuts to the youth service budget are not only unjustified, but woefully short-sighted. The current attitude must be changed to reflect the words of the pioneering American educationalist Robert H Shaffer, who said: “We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit.”

 

For further information, please visit the “Choose Youth Manifesto – our vision for a new youth service” at http://www.chooseyouth.org/assets/documents/5601_ChooseYouth_4ppA4_Finalweb.pdf

 

Sources:

1) http://www.southampton.gov.uk/council-partners/transparency.aspx

2) www.chooseyouth.org

3) http://www.wessexscene.co.uk/politics/2013/01/29/youth-services-to-be-cut/

4) http://falseeconomy.org.uk/cuts/item/southampton-youth-support-services

5) http://www.facebook.com/southampton.sos

6) http://www.southampton.gov.uk/news-events/latest-news/budget2013.aspx

7) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21443812

8) http://www.chooseyouth.org/assets/documents/5601_ChooseYouth_4ppA4_Finalweb.pdf

 

Perfect Storm – the end of growth warns leading financial broker?!

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Capitalism is the regime that aims, by every means, at
increasing production—a certain kind of production, let us
not forget—and, by every means, at reducing “costs”—
costs, let us not forget either, that are defined very
restrictively: neither the destruction of the environment,
nor the flattening of human lives, nor the ugliness of cities,
nor the universal triumph of irresponsibility and cynicism,
nor the replacement of tragedy and popular festival by
televised sitcoms is taken into account in this calculation,
nor could they be taken into account in any calculation of
this type [Cornelius Castoriadis 1996].

The backcloth to the drama of the assault on youth work remains the economic and political crisis besetting neo-liberal capitalism. This is not at all a left-wing conclusion. Thanks to Gerry Gold and Joe Taylor over at NATCAN for drawing to our attention to this sobering analysis from one of the leading world financial brokers. These guys are a mite worried and perplexed about the future – PERFECT STORM

If you’ve time and indeed the energy it is an accessible and thought-provoking read, begging many more questions than answers. Amongst many things, given a recent discussion on the falsification of results at the heart of outcomes-based management, is the acknowledgement that the economic data available to guide supposedly policy is, to put it gently, distorted and misleading.

perfect storm
energy, finance and the end of growth
summary
part one: the end of an era
the four factors which are bringing down the curtain on growth
The economy as we know it is facing a lethal confluence of four critical factors – the fall-out
from the biggest debt bubble in history; a disastrous experiment with globalisation; the
massaging of data to the point where economic trends are obscured; and, most important of
all, the approach of an energy-returns cliff-edge.
part two: this time is different
the implosion of the credit super-cycle
The 2008 crash resulted from the bursting of the biggest bubble in financial history, a ‘credit
super-cycle’ that spanned three decades. Why did this happen?
part three: the globalisation disaster
globalisation and the western economic catastrophe
The Western developed nations are particularly exposed to the adverse trends explored in this
report, because globalisation has created a lethal divergence between burgeoning consumption
and eroding production, with out-of-control debt used to bridge this widening chasm.
part four: loaded dice
how policies have been blind-sided by distorted data
The reliable information which policymakers and the public need if effective solutions are to
be found is not available. Economic data (including inflation, growth, GDP and unemployment)
has been subjected to incremental distortion, whilst information about government spending,
deficits and debt is extremely misleading.
part five: the killer equation
the decaying growth dynamic
The economy is a surplus energy equation, not a monetary one, and growth in output
(and in the global population) since the Industrial Revolution has resulted from the
harnessing of ever-greater quantities of energy. But the critical relationship between
energy production and the energy cost of extraction is now deteriorating so rapidly that
the economy as we have known it for more than two centuries is beginning to unravel.

Defend the Right to Challenge the Cuts : Support ‘Don’ MacDonald

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Latest from the campaign to defend Don Macdonald – he writes:

Hello there I was wondering if  you could spare a minute to read about my defence campaign. Many different  anti-cuts campaign groups and individuals have stepped up to support me in the accusations made against me by  Councillor Nick Forbes and his decision to use political policing to shut me up. I would like the unjustified accusations to be dropped and raise the issue that it should be everyone’s democratic right to be able to speak up for themselves, and to be able to challenge injustices made by politicians.

Misspent Youth in Haringey : More Obfuscation by the Council?

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Ahead of tonight’s Youth Service scrutiny meeting the Council seems to be trying to confuse the situation, suggesting that the Community Analysis has been produced by a shadowy anonymous group. Jason Akinfenwa puts the record straight.

Dear Councillors
Ahead of Haringey Council’s scrutiny meeting this evening a report has been submitted outlining the concerns from the community.
 
Contrary to what the council has informed the local and national media today, this report was not anonymously written and was submitted to the council earlier this week using official channels to give them ample time to consider its contents. 
 
There is no need for the council to issue a “Banksy style plea” for the authors to “come forward”, we have never hidden our identities and have ample evidence we have tried to engage in dialogue with this council in excess of 50 occasions. 
 
Therefore, as a parent, I ask the council respectfully not to continue this facade as it is not a good example to set the youths who are watching this issue as it unfolds.
 
The main findings of the report are as follows
  • Despite an alleged budget cut of the youth service in 2011, the budget increased from £1.8m to over £2.1m 
  • Despite having an increase in its budget, council run youth activities have dropped from 130hrs a week to barely 20hrs
  • On several occasions, activities we were informed were run by the council transpired to be run by other organisations
  • The numbers of young people the service has worked with has halved from 2010 and 2013
  • The number of young people the service worked with outside of the summer & those commissioned to other organisations is under 300 for the whole year. 
  • There are no targets or performance measurements in the strategy and no one knows what the service is meant to be achieving, including the council itself.
We have presented evidenced facts we have ascertained from the council, we are giving the council the opportunity this evening to seek its own investigation before we look to present our findings to the Local Government Ombudsman.
 
We have attached the report for your reference or it is down loadable on the In Defence of Youth Work website.
 
We look forward to your constructive response and action in the hope our shared ambition to help our the youths of Haringey is met.
 
Best Wishes
 
J. Akinfenwa

Misspent Youth : Community Analysis exposes Haringey Youth Service to scrutiny

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A poster from the 2011/12 Haringey Save Our Service Campaign

 

 

Report Reveals Haringey’s Youth Service Budget Did Not Get Cut, But Services Dramatically Reduced

 

 

Campaigners who have fought for over 2 years to save Haringey Councils Youth Services have published a report of their findings following a Community Investigation

 


The report, titled ‘Misspent Youth’ reveals the well believed 75% Cut to the Councils Youth Service in Feb 2011 did not actually happen, despite job losses & closure of a majority of youth projects across the borough, including Youth Centres and a Counselling Service.

 

 

A Freedom of Information request received earlier this month stated the current Youth Service budget was £2.1m, compared to an earlier request in Nov 2010 (prior to the alleged cut) where the budget was stated to be £1.8m. It appears the council have invested an extra £300,000 more.

 

 

The report also identified that the council only worked with 2,000 young people this year, of which 1,400 were just worked with during the Summer, compared to over double that in 2010 where the service worked with over 4,400 teenagers throughout the year. The dramatic reduction of services, in 2010 young people could access over 130 hrs of provision a week, currently despite a rise in budget access has been reduced to under 20 hrs a week

 

 

“Something has seriously gone wrong, the public and elected Councillors were led to believe a cut needed to take place and had, and now it transpires it was not needed and had not is shocking. The money is there to provide young people the services they want and need, but the Council is just not delivering. For the sake of accountability this matter needs to be investigated” Jason Akinfenwa, Youth Service Campaigner.

 

 

The community campaign are recommending the Council undertake a financial audit to find out how this occurred, especially as it seems even Councillors believed a cut took place & to urgently open the 3 council Youth Centres.

 

“Our young people are facing worrying levels of need given the economic, social and political climate. We have had the worst riots of a generation which has devastated our community and will have a life destroying long term impact on the futures of our young people. At a time when the council should be offering as much support as possible, it seems they have gone out of their way to deny them a service they have continually asked for. The revelations in this report are both disturbing and dangerous. For the sake of our children, the council needs to act fast to rectify what seems to have occurred” Seema Chandwani, Youth Service Campaigner

The report is released ahead of tonight’s Overview & Scrutiny Meeting where the Youth Service will be under the spotlight.

 

·        FOI to current budget can be found here
·        Budget Cut Papers for 2011/2012 can be found here (Youth Service page 140, item 60)
Latest coverage in Children and Young People Now -

Campaigners claim Haringey cut youth services despite budget rise

 

Creating Resistance, Making History : Synergy in Leeds

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Crammed into the Burley Lodge Centre

Over the weekend of March 8/9/10 an icy Leeds witnessed both the In Defence and Youth & Policy conferences. There was a remarkable synergy between the two events. True to the Greek origins of the word from synergia meaning ‘working together’ energy and creativity flowed from one to the other , involving a cross-section of participants – students, workers, managers, academics and researchers from across the UK and indeed the globe! The USA,  Japan, France and Flanders were represented. Across the next week we will be posting a number of reflections upon the proceedings and proposals for action.

Caught up in argumentative debate

For the moment just to thank everyone, who contributed to an exploration of both past and present, which spoke constantly to the contemporary dilemmas facing youth and community work. Watch this space for further reports.

 

Sharing the Load : Spreading The Word : Starting on Time : Bringing Butties!

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As we look forward to next week’s IDYW conference on March 8th in Leeds a mix of fundamental and practical issues emerge.

1. At each annual conference we welcome nominations for the steering group, which tries its best to keep the IDYW show on the road. This year the members have been Sue Atkins, Malcolm Ball, Andy Brown,Tania de St Croix, Bernard Davies, Pauline Grace, Susanna Hunter-Darch, Diane Law, Anne Marron, Don MacDonald with Tony Taylor as Co-ordinator. As far as commitment goes this is very much a matter of negotiation. Whilst we hold a SKYPE meeting each month to keep abreast of affairs, not everyone is able to fit these into busy diaries. However members of the group tend to take responsibility for particular aspects of the Campaign’s work. For example this year Bernard, Susanna and Tania have led on the workshops programme, Sue, Malcolm and Anne on the Choose Youth/Institute of Youth Work front, whilst Pauline has developed our European links. In recent months Don and Anne have prioritised the SOS campaign in Newcastle with Diane heading up the conference organisation.

In this context we hope you might consider putting yourself forward or persuading someone else to be part of the 2013/14 steering group. If you can’t get to conference, indicate your interest by mailing Tony on tonymtaylor@gmail.com before Thursday, March 7th. Nominations will be accepted at the conference itself before lunch.

2. During the year we have been very conscious of the relatively weak links between the steering group and the Campaign’s supporters. Although it must be stressed that across a range of seminars and book workshops we have been in intimate and critical contact with almost 300 people. Nevertheless we want to facilitate a discussion in the coming months, which looks at democratising our Campaign, including the possibility of a simple constitution. During this process we intend to use the internet device, Surveymonkey, to test out what you are thinking and feeling.

3. Much more immediately on Friday we are going to defy the long-standing cultural antipathy in youth work circles to punctuality! In short we are going to kick off on time at 11.00 a.m. So please make every effort to be as early as you can manage, especially as we will taking money on the door etc. Drinks will be available. Continuing the chase against the clock can you also make sure you do bring your own lunch. As it happens there isn’t a nearby sandwich shop, but we are confident that on your travels you will pass many such outlets! End of sermon!

Further info on the conference – March 2013 Burley Lodge

Places still available. Indeed if you turn up on the day, we won’t turn you away!

Catching the Second Wave of This is Youth Work workshops : Positively surfing!

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At the beginning of the year we announced that we were offering a second round of workshops based on our book, This is Youth Work – Grappling with Constraints.

Our first invitation saw us in conversation with the Limerick Youth Service.

Eibhlis Bray, Limerick’s county coordinator, has composed an enthusiastic response to the experience, The Tale of Youth Work. Within it she notes,

We began our pilot of ‘Storytelling’ over two days this January facilitated by Bernard Davies, and Suzanne Hunter Darch (also an IDYW activist). A core group of staff, were brought through the storytelling workshop, adapted from the initial IDYW programme, prepared by Dr. Sarah Banks of Durham University. The method devised by Dr Banks, “is derived from the first stage of a Socratic dialogue approach” (IDYW; 2013). Based on their experiences of using the programme in the UK and tailored to the specifics of our organisation, Bernard and Suzanne prepared a modified programme which aimed:

 

  • To give Limerick Youth Service youth workers an opportunity to explore what youth work practice means for them in their current work settings.

  • To describe and analyse examples of their past or current youth work practice.

  • To analyse some of these examples and reflect on how and why they are youth work.

  • To compare these definitions with the definition of youth work advocated by the In Defence of Youth Work campaign in the UK.

Moving on she reflects,

Being involved in the story telling workshop over the two days has been a unique experience. Following the workshops I wrote two paragraphs on how I was feeling and markedly the words I chose were – energised, enthusiastic and optimistic. My experience of the story-telling process was immensely powerful. This impression of story telling I feel is due to the ownership I felt during the process, as I use my own words to describe and be supported by my peers to name my youth work practice. The opportunity to tell my story appears simple, but as the web of my story was un-woven through the workshop method, the intricacy and depth of story-telling as a means of capturing practice emerged.

 

For two days, we participated in a group, critically thinking about, talking about, interrogating, and listening to practice that is happening in Limerick Youth Service; and I felt a real sense of being part of a movement that has at its core youth work. The challenge is to now advance on our two day experience and put in place a process of ‘cascading’ story-telling through-out the organisation, in order to capture the breath of youth work practice and collectively articulate our youth work. The potential of storytelling may be in it’s infancy for us, however, I am hopeful that this will be integral to asserting the ‘currency’ of our claims, as we build additional avenues to articulate and capture our practice.

 

A few days later Bernard Davies and Pauline Grace in cooperation with Nic Gratton of the Creative Communities Unit at Staffordshire University ran – what is called in this video – a networking session based on our workshop format.

Further workshops are in the pipeline, including our first venture into Wales. The revised flyer, The Workshops : A New Offer gives you all the information you need to weigh up whether your organisation might surf with us in this second wave of opportunities.

The Right to Challenge the Cuts : Leading IDYW activist arrested!

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The In Defence of Youth Work steering group is deeply perturbed at the news that one of its members, Michael ‘Don’ Macdonald, was arrested in the aftermath of the vibrant Save our Services Rally in Newcastle. In a sensationalist report in the local Evening Chronicle it is claimed that Don threatened Nick Forbes, the Leader of the Council, subjecting him to a tirade of abuse. All the evidence is to the contrary. Don, a youth worker in the city, is fighting the charge and has our fullest support. For a much more detailed account of what’s been happening, go to:

What is the Right to Challenge Cuts campaign?

Statement from Michael ‘Don’ MacDonald

Statement from Save Our Services, of which IDYW is a member, which begins,

It is with regret that the Save Our Services (SOS) campaign group finds itself in a position whereby it is necessary to defend the actions of one of its members. We believe this necessary not just with regard to the reputation of the member involved, but also in respect of the implications this situation creates regarding public protest and freedom of expression in Newcastle.

Four years on – The Open Letter and Pink Elephants!

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Fair enough we know the elephant isn’t pink, but it is in the room!

It’s four years since our founding Open Letter hit the streets. However its message seems to retain all its pertinence and resonance. Indeed it is revealing to read the following comments made by students over the past few days.

Di26 reflects:

At present I’m on my first year study in Youth and Community Work (JNC) and have recently experienced my first tangible evidence of how much youth work principles are being targeted and redeployed from their own values and tenacity of returning something back to the young people and communities who they value.
I was disheartened at the recommendations and meanings I heard from Central Government policies and how they are going to employ them into practice. This was fundamentally flawed and presented a lack of any reassurance for the young people and where they were emerging from. In continuing to act as an “agency of behavioural modification” I started to question who actually determines what behaviour is appropriate and what rationale is behind actually endeavouring to modify young people’s behaviour.
Young people are losing their rights to cultivate and to develop who they want to be, and are constantly being regulated, converted and amended to encompass a “One size fits all” .
One size does not fit all and all the variances should be esteemed, revelled in and not diminished to a communal image, where peoples own identity and ethos is being disorientated due to this modification.

Sophina comments:

I am also a first year student studying youth and community work (JNC). Upon reading all previous comments, I feel enlightened about the current climate youth work is in. Within the compound of university I felt that I understood, but since becoming part of my placement I have become more empathetic and not just sympathetic towards the passion and ideology of what youth work truly stands for. First hand I have already experienced the conflicting motives that are occurring between the LA and the youth service.
Although I am relatively new to youth work my past experience is within schools, I felt restricted inside the boundaries of formality and felt that an invisible barrier was being produced due to the focus being solely on academic performance and conformance. Targets and curriculum took over the wants and needs of each individual child, and for those whom may have needed a different approach, were put on an IBP or EBP then passed on to others who can be bothered.
I have come to find that the ‘others’ meant youth workers. I feel that the amount of psychological, sociological and philosophical experience that youth workers have, let’s not forget the passion for each individual young person, has been underrated by the dominant discourse of the majority of society. Thus discrediting the skills of a youth worker and furthermore demonizing specific young people. Youth workers at present are between a rock and a hard place. deadlines and targets defeat the values of what youth work is really about.
I totally agree with Tony’s open letter and can see the frustration that seems to be falling on deaf ears unless more youth workers come forward and point out the pink elephant in the room the methodology will be lost.

Catherine opines:

I have recently started my degree in Youth and Community and find very sad the state of youth provision at the moment. I already work with young people and obviously experienced cuts to budgets etc. Since starting this course it has emphasised even more the need and importance that something needs to be done and quickly. This week I visited a local youth centre and with it being half term I expected to see some young people. I did not see one young person which really surprised me and left me wondering where and what are all the young people doing. I do feel that the service has turned into a target driven service with deadlines and bums on seats attitude which is not what effective youth work is. What happened to the humanistic approach, detached youth work, working with young people and building positive relationships to help both youth workers and young people move forward. I couldn’t agree more with the open letter  – a true reflection on what it has become.

Daryl worries:

I am a first year student studying Youth & Community Work at Newman University in Birmingham. I also work as a Project Worker and have been in my current post for several years. In that time I have experienced first hand the dramatic shift in the state of modern day youth work.

Youth Work is no longer about the voluntary relationship between the worker or young person and is evermore less about the individual needs of the young people we are supposed to informally educate. Instead Youth Work finds itself and its core principles and values caught up in bureaucratic red tape where outcomes models, targeted work and the monitoring and labelling of young people such as NEET’S is becoming increasingly more standard practice. The needs of the young people as individuals is at a loss within the whole process.

Youth Work is fast becoming everything it is not meant to be, governed by Politicians, outcomes, statistics and Policy initiatives. In my opinion It seems that our profession is at a critical point, where those who govern will furthermore aim to formalise it with regulation and policy so it is looked upon as some form of alternative education to school, with the emphasis being on the social inclusion of the young people they demonise and label in the first place.

Tony’s open letter is spot on and a true testimony of the state of youth work today. If things do not change dramatically, the core principles and values which youth work is based upon will be a distant memory.

And finally Hannah underlines the reality she is experiencing:

I have only been engaged in Youth Work for the past 3 years, and have worked for a Local Authority and a third sector organisation commissioned by the LA for the duration. As such I have never experienced the type of open, un-targeted and needs-led service which Tony and my mentors recall fondly. However, I believe that until policies change, it is down to individual youth workers to maintain democratic and anti-oppressive practice within the confines of outcomes and funding restrictions. I have worked with youth workers within the LA who clearly emanate this ethos, and youth workers who clearly do not.

At the centre of youth work has always been the relationship between youth worker and young person. Youth workers are the driving force of youth work and we must not compromise our integrity.

Sincere thanks to these students for taking the trouble to express both their commitment and anxiety in these troubled times.