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16
Resolution 24
Youth Service
(1)
This Conference continues to be opposed to the unfair and unnecessary attacks on
The GS wrote letters to every MP and member of the House of Lords on behalf of
the campaign and drafted the Young People and Youth Work Bill with Unite
member Andy Driver and former director of the National Youth Agency Tom
Wylie.A special meeting of Chooseyouth was held on June 4th and a renewed
episode of concerted campaigning ensued. our public services. It notes with utter
dismay the consequence of this in the near ruin of the Youth Service in Britain.
(2)
The historic role of youth work as an educational service offering personal and social
development to young people outside school and work and offering an entirely
unique space for young people to grow and develop, as well as for preventative
work to be undertaken is under serious threat. The service has experienced an
ideologically driven break up of youth work and the youth services. It is undisputed
that the Youth Service in England is the first public service to actually disappear as
a consequence of the austerity funding cuts to local authorities by the current Tory
Government.
(3)
Fantastic youth work now only exists in isolated fragments. The architecture of the
post war settlement of local authorities working in partnership with the voluntary
sector to provide professionally qualified workers and supported volunteers to work
with and for young people to expand their horizons and develop citizenship and
collective responsibility has gone. No local authority in England has a Youth Service
left. Thousands of youth centres have closed.
(4)
This conference calls upon the GFTU and affiliate organisations to:
1.
Continue to actively support the Choose Youth Campaign, the
unprecedented alliance of youth organisations and Trade unions to
defend youth services and Youth workers jobs underpinned by professional
national Terms and Conditions (JNC for Youth and Community workers)
2.
Endorse the recent Choose Youth Statement and inform all affiliate
organisations of its content
3.
Support the Votes at 16 campaign along with a massive voter registration
campaign specifically targeting young people
4.
Campaign for a rebuilt and publically funded youth service staffed by
professionally qualified JNC youth workers with their job title protected in
statute and a licence to practise scheme
(5)
Such an investment and rebuilding of a youth service will enable young people to
lead a renewed sense of commitment to a social and economic future that values
our young people first and foremost.”
The GS wrote letters to every MP and member of the House of Lords on behalf of the campaign and drafted the Young People and Youth
Work Bill with Unite member Andy Driver and former director of the National Youth Agency Tom Wylie.A special meeting of Chooseyouth
was held on June 4
th
and a renewed episode of concerted campaigning ensued.