‘Damaging’ scale of cuts to youth services revealed

YOUTH SERVICES have been cut by as much as 91 per cent in parts of Yorkshire over the past decade, as councils struggle with plummeting funding, figures show.

The biggest drop in the region was in Barnsley, where 91 per cent of funding was slashed from 2010 to 2019, followed by Leeds, which cut youth services by 87 per cent, and Wakefield by 85 per cent.

In the UK, just £429m of funding was allocated to youth services in the 2018/19 financial year, compared with £1.4bn in 2010/11, according to figures collected by the YMCA, which said the cuts were “condemning young people to become a lonely, lost generation with nowhere to turn”.

It averages at a 73 per cent drop across Yorkshire – equivalent to £122,117 – and 60 per cent across the UK.

Cases of knife crime, mental health difficulties and isolation among young people continue to rise, while the number of services available to positively intervene and prevent such cases continue to decline, the YMCA said.

Denise Hatton, the chief executive of YMCA England and Wales, said: “Youth services exist to provide a sense of belonging, a safe space, and the opportunity for young people to enjoy being young. But for almost a decade now local authorities have struggled under the weight of funding pressures, meaning youth services are being forced to endure continued and damaging cuts.”

Leeds Council’s executive member for children and families, Coun Fiona Venner, said: “What these figures show is the sheer scale of cuts to Youth Services under the Conservative Government, this vital area of work has been completely decimated.”

A Government spokesman said next year, councils in England will have access to £49.1bn, “the biggest annual real-terms increase in spending power in a decade”.