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Youth Green Paper
Foreword
Life for teenagers is full of opportunities, and most take full advantage of them. New opportunities are opening up all the time driven, for example, by developments in technology and communications. Yet young people often feel that there is not enough for them to do outside school, college or work. Some are not able to benefit fully from all the opportunities available to them because they come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Others choose not to make the most of these opportunities and can get into a downward spiral of anti-social behaviour, crime and drug-taking.
We hope that young people and their parents will welcome our proposals. We plan to give them more say in the way local services and activities are provided and to increase their choice. Through opportunity cards and opportunity funds we will put spending power in the hands of young people, and give them influence to shape the activities available locally.
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will inspire young people on to sporting success and be a beacon to draw them into a diverse range of sporting, volunteering and cultural activities. But with new opportunities will come a new emphasis on young people's responsibilities. It is wrong that young people who do not respect the opportunities they are given, by committing crimes or behaving anti-socially, should benefit from the same opportunities as the law-abiding majority. So we will put appropriate measures in place to ensure they do not.
We also want to make sure that all young people are given the best chance in life to succeed - by improving their qualifications, getting better jobs and making positive contributions to their local communities. We are making changes to the way in which support for young people is organised locally - for example, by giving Local Authorities more flexibility in the way they use their resources to provide support and other services for young people. This reflects our wider reforms of the public sector - removing duplication of services and increasing effectiveness and efficiency. Our proposals also recognise the importance of teenagers enjoying good emotional and physical health, which are inseparable from learning and achievement.
Of course, Government cannot make these changes alone. We will depend on the support of a number of partners, particularly Local Authorities, children's trusts and organisations which currently provide services for young people at both local and national level. And of course young people themselves and their parents will need to be fully involved in deciding how the proposals can be implemented.
Together, we can make a significant difference to the lives of young people and to the communities in which they live. This paper is a major step towards doing so.
RUTH KELLY
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS
