A poll for The Observer has shown that the Labour party is the favourite among young people, holding a 14 per cent lead over the other parties, with young people’s priorities closely matching those championed by Labour, such as the NHS, inequality, and unemployment. In response, our party must present a bold, visionary and responsive package of policies and programmes that match young people’s needs, challenges and aspirations.
Between 1997-2010 Labour achieved great things for young people: places at university soared; teenage pregnancies fell; we invested in youth centres; strengthened youth participation; and put power into the hands of young people through initiatives such as the youth opportunities fund. There were things we could have done better, but Labour had real commitment to young people in contrast with this government’s ‘on yer bike’ attitude, student betrayal, and record youth unemployment. When it came to providing positive opportunities and experiences for young people, Labour succeeded.
Under Gordon Brown’s premiership, Dawn Butler was the minister for young citizens and youth engagement – a post never appointed under David Cameron. This has left the United Kingdom, unlike many countries, with no youth minister, no youth ministry, and no real home for youth policy. Under this government, responsibility for young people has been moved from the previous Department for Children, Schools and Families, to the reformed Department for Education and finally to the Cabinet Office where it focuses almost exclusively on Cameron’s pet project, the National Citizenship Service. This has not gone unnoticed by the youth sector, with the British Youth Council recently calling for a minister for young people and introduction of young peers into the House of Lords. Disappointingly, the UK was not represented at the recent First Global Forum on Youth Policy – despite invitation from the hosts and ministers’ attendance being fully funded.
Ed Miliband and the shadow cabinet have announced a range of youth-focused policies, with initiatives on apprenticeships, a job guarantee, and basic skills needed for employment. While these are promising and needed they have a tendency to see ‘youth’ as merely the transition from childhood to the workforce and not appreciate the complex, fluid and multifaceted lives of young people. Young people want more that to simply work. They want to contribute, to be healthy and safe, to have meaningful relationships, to learn, work, play and participate. After five years under this government, young people need hope – but they also need decent, robust policies to support them.
According to the State of Youth Policy 2014, 127 out of 198 countries have a current national youth policy. While Michael Gove’s version of a youth policy, Positive for Youth, is strong on rhetoric, it could never succeed against the slashing – and at times eliminating – of youth services across the country. Young people are not looking for government handouts. What young people need are investments that allow them to succeed in life – whatever they chose to do, who they chose to become and whichever path through life they chose to take.
Ahead of the election, Labour should present a clear vision for young people, with policies addressing the traditional youth elements, such as education, employment and participation, as well as more non-youth specific issues like housing, security, justice, and wellbeing. As a government, the Labour party can make a real difference to the lives and outcomes of young people – just as we did before – and we do them a huge disservice by seeing them mostly as economic beings. A cross-sectoral, evidence-based youth policy would be a strong articulation of Labour’s commitment to youth and act as a dividing line between this government’s disregard of young people.
Young people rarely get the attention paid to old generations – mostly because they are seen as the demographic least likely to vote and are less predictable in their choices. However, the Scottish referendum showed that when young people care about an issue they turn out in huge numbers. Three million young people aged 17-22 who will be first time voters at the next general election have not yet decided who to vote for. Getting them to turn out on election day will strengthen democracy, but getting them to turn out and vote for Labour could strengthen Miliband’s chances of becoming prime minister.
———————————-
Alex Farrow is a youth and public policy researcher. He tweets @AlexJamesFarrow
———————————-