Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP

A 10 YEAR STRATEGY FOR POSITIVE ACTIVITIES

Speech by the Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP, Minister of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families

26 July 2007 , House of Commons

Mr Speaker, with your permission, I would like to make a statement.

Two weeks ago, my Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary of State set out how the new Department for Children, Schools and Families would accelerate the drive to raise standards of attainment particularly for the most disadvantaged children.

This strategy today is responding to the distinctive needs of young people and how we can better support them through the development of positive activities.

The joint review by my Department and the Treasury of national and international research, including on the views of young people themselves, has established a number of key findings about adolescence on which we must now act.

First, that today’s teenagers do indeed face a much more complex process of growing up, with an unprecedented range of opportunities and choices, but also new risks and challenges.

Second, that social and economic trends, including globalisation, mean that academic and vocational skills alone are no longer sufficient to equip young people for our changing labour market.

Third, that young people also need well developed capabilities, sometimes called ‘social and emotional’ or ‘non-cognitive’ skills, in order to acquire the flexibility, adaptability and resilience to overcome challenge and change. Employers are increasingly demanding these capabilities too.

And finally, that whilst committed parents and a good school are always crucial, these additional capabilities are acquired not through formal learning but by participating in positive structured activities, with trusted adults.

Whether it be sport, music, drama, volunteering, being in the scouts or guides or a rap group: it is now clear that taking part in organised activities, led by responsible adults, is how young people develop confidence, tenacity and tolerance – how they learn to lead, co-operate with others, and solve problems.

These attributes are not just nice for young people to have. They are essential - both to overcome the challenges of adolescence and to mature into well-adjusted adults.

So this strategy is focused on ensuring that all our youngsters can enjoy their teenage years – a formative time in their lives - while at the same time, and crucially, developing the capabilities essential for success.

The strategy builds on the unprecedented investment and progressive reform this Government has already made in young people – through Every Child Matters and Connexions, with extra support targeted at those most in need.

It complements our decision to raise the age of participation in education and extends the initiatives set out in the Green Paper, ‘Youth Matters’.

As a result of these measures, the hard work of parents and many dedicated practitioners working with young people, and contrary to the hype about ‘youth in crisis’, the facts show most young people are doing better than ever before.

Exam results and the numbers staying on in education are both at all time highs, with more than 59% gaining five good GCSEs, and 77% of 16 and 17 year olds continuing in learning and training.

More young people are volunteering than any other age group. Compared to previous generations, they are more accepting of other faiths and races; more liberal about gender roles; and more likely to feel satisfied with their lives.

But we also know that a minority of young people are not sharing in this success: young people born into disadvantage, involved in high risk behaviour, underachieving at school and, crucially, failing to develop the capabilities they need for the future.

Held back by low self-esteem, lack of self-discipline and poor self-control - all of which are strongly linked to serious problems such as crime, teenage pregnancy, dropping out of education and training, and the misuse of drink and drugs.

Disadvantaged young people are much less likely to get the chance to take part in positive activities organised through school or by their parents, and so are doubly disadvantaged: the result is the young people who most need these capabilities to meet the challenges they face are the least likely to acquire them.

And the backdrop to all of this, Mr Speaker, is an unrelentingly negative view of young people in this country, where the problems of the few eclipse the achievements of the many.

71% of media stories about young people are negative. No wonder 98% of young people tell us they feel stereotyped, criticised and undervalued, their achievements unfairly disregarded.

With this strategy we are determined both to rebalance the public debate about our young people and to transform their opportunities for positive activities and places to go - especially for those who are disadvantaged, vulnerable or disabled.

Mr Speaker, three principles underpin this vision: empowerment, access and quality.

Our youth opportunity and capital funds are already putting real spending power in young people’s hands. 650,000 teenagers have already taken part and benefited. And it’s already clear that when young people influence local decision-making, opportunities and services improve.

So we will invest a further £173m over the next three years through these funds.

And to ensure we are reaching the most disadvantaged and excluded we will invest an additional £25m in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

But we want to go further, so our expectation is that by 2018, young people will have direct influence over at least 25% of local authority budgets for positive activities.

We also want a step-change in what’s on offer to all young people, especially the most disadvantaged.

So this strategy includes major new investment in ‘places to go’. Unclaimed bank assets will complement new government spending to support our aspiration of an exciting, modern, up to date place for young people in every community.

Local authorities will lead public, voluntary and private sector partnerships, working with young people, to develop visionary new facilities for teenagers, while addressing problems such as poor transport that otherwise mean some young people miss out.

We want to develop young people’s capacity for leadership and entrepreneurship through a new fund – creating, in effect, a national institute of youth leadership.

We will also support older teenagers to set up social enterprises in their communities; and promote inter-generational activity by encouraging adults, especially active retired people, to volunteer and mentor young people.

Mr Speaker, our success in engaging the most excluded young people is the critical test of this strategy – because they have the most to gain, yet are the least likely to participate.

So we will invest in a variety of ways of reaching them.

In our most deprived communities, we will test cutting-edge approaches to creating more and better youth facilities, informing how we spend unclaimed assets in future.

We will invest up to £82 million in addition to existing funding of £140m, in established schemes such as the Positive Activities for Young People and Youth Inclusion Programmes, to increase and make them available all year round.

We will also invest up to £100m so third sector providers with a proven track record in working with vulnerable young people can expand and sustain their activities into the future.

We will build on the successful Doit4Real residential scheme, which demonstrates that bringing together young people from different backgrounds raises aspirations, especially among the more disadvantaged, and fosters community cohesion. A further £15m will subsidise those who otherwise could not afford to take part.

Finally, this new investment must be matched by further reform.

Despite significant progress since Youth Matters, services for young people are too often fragmented, patchy and poor. Yet research shows that only high quality services make the difference. We need stronger leadership, and more skilled and creative people working with our teenagers – good role models who can relate to and inspire young people from all backgrounds.

So this strategy sets out a ten year workforce reform programme, supported by new investment of £25m, including for a leadership programme to attract more graduates into the sector, building on the successful model of Teach First.

We also expect local authorities, youth offending teams and Primary Care Trusts to pool budgets, a radical change to drive a renewed focus on prevention.

Mr Speaker, we are making the most ambitious commitment to all our young people for decades, supported over the period 2008 to 2011 by £124 million worth of new investment, reinvestment of unclaimed bank assets and £60 million of new government capital for youth facilities, and £495 million of baseline funding.

Mr Speaker, I hope Members of Parliament on all sides of the House can join together and take the lead in promoting a better appreciation of our nation’s young people – our future- and through this strategy achieve a transformation of the opportunities they need to succeed.

I commend this statement to the House

Biography of Rt Hon Beverley Hughes MP, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)

Beverley Hughes has responsibility for policy relating to children, young people and families and is a key figure in the Every Child Matters programme.

She was, previously, Minister of State at the Home Office, with responsibility for Citizenship, Immigration and Community Cohesion. Prior to that, in June 2001, she was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Home Office, with responsibility for prisons, child protection, sentencing and law reform, probation, mentally disordered offenders, coroners and policy on sex offenders. In July 1999, she was appointed Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State in the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, with responsibility for local government, regeneration, regions, planning and construction.

Before entering parliament Beverley Hughes qualified and worked in Merseyside as a probation officer and subsequently became Senior Lecturer and Head of Department in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Manchester. She was elected to Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council in 1986, and was Leader of the Council from 1995 until her election to the House of Commons in 1997.

Beverley Hughes was educated at Ellesmere Port Girls' Grammar School, Manchester University and Liverpool University. She is married with three children.