Orders of the Day — Youth and Community Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 1 February 1974.

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Photo of Mr Bob Mitchell Mr Bob Mitchell , Southampton, Itchen 12:00, 1 February 1974

Last night in Southampton 1,000 people, mostly in the 40 to 50 age range, attended a dance. Another 500 had wanted to come but were unable to do so because of the limits on the size of the hall. If I am bleary eyed today it is because I was with those people until the early hours of this morning. Hon. Members may ask "What has that to do with the Bill?" In fact it is very appropriate because the dance was a reunion for those active as either members or organisers in the youth service in Southampton from 1940 to 1950.

It was an interesting evening. Many people who had not met for 10, 15 or 20 years renewed old acquaintances, talking over the times when they were in the youth service and when they took part in the activities of youth clubs. The fact that there was such a tremendous demand for the dance and the success of the function displays something of the lasting value of the youth service.

I welcome the Bill although I am critical of some of its provisions. I find it a little paternalistic. But it gives us an opportunity to debate the youth service, and that is always of great value. The important provision is Clause 2, which makes it mandatory for every local education authority to prepare and submit a scheme. This gives the youth service a status which it probably did not have before.

Like the hon. Member for the Isle of Ely (Mr. Freud), I believe that it is not much good preparing and producing a scheme if no one puts it into operation. I am not entirely convinced by the argument that no authority would dare not to put such a scheme into operation once it had been prepared. I can think of some local authorities that might well take a different view.

The Bill is a little toothless without the money and facilities to go with its provisions. Often in the past the youth service has been the Cinderella of the education service, and whenever periodic cuts are ordered the youth service is often the first to be hit. I remember an example of that about four years ago in my own town where a relatively small cut was made in the overall education budget. This is the only political point that I shall make in the debate. At that time the Conservative Party was in control of my council, and I am glad that that is no longer the case. When those small cuts were made at that time our youth service was emasculated. After that we had buildings and youth leaders but when one wanted to bring in an instructor to teach judo or coach football there was nothing in the kitty.

I believe in a fully-trained youth service. We need more fully-trained youth organisers. However, I do not want to lose the expertise we have in the youth movement of the part-time person who is doing another job during the day and has gone through the Bessey training scheme.

The youth service can draw, for example, on the expertise of the policeman, the man who works for the Ordnance Survey or in the docks, all coming in for part-time youth work; such people are invaluable to the service. While we appreciate that we want more fully-trained youth leaders to organise the whole scheme, we do not want to lose these important part-time people in the process.

There has been conjecture among youth service personnel about where its future lies. Does it lie with education or should it break away and become part of a new leisure service run by a district council? One of the dangers in Clause 7 is that it says that a local education authority "shall not attract rate support grant". That could, if interpreted wrongly, be the first steps toward taking the youth service from the rest of the education service. That would be a pity. Although I said earlier that it can in certain circumstances be the Cinderella of the education service, I am inclined to believe that if the youth service remains part of education its chances of getting money and facilities may be greater than if it tries to break away and become part of the leisure services of a district council.

In any case, it will have the facilities available for the education service. While I do not believe that it is necessary to have youth clubs centred completely on a school, the facilities available in a school must always be available for the youth club. My preference is for purpose-built buildings in the grounds of a school or, perhaps, just outside them. The people I want to see attending youth clubs, who would not normally attend them, do not want to go back into a school atmosphere after having left it. The Bill does not really cater for those youngsters who come from a pre-war housing estate, such as those with whom I used to be associated in a youth club. Such people will not very easily be brought into participation in community youth councils and so on. But it is these people in whom I am interested. Some of us used to call them the "unattached". They are people who have no associations. Not many years ago a pamphlet was produced which dealt with these unattached people.

The main part of the Bill is Clause 2. I am also concerned about the present lack of training facilities for full-time youth workers. Various organisations have expressed concern about this matter. Although perhaps it may not be appropriate to mention salaries today, one must do that. We shall not get the sort of fully-trained youth service we want without a proper career and salary structure. They have not achieved this yet. As with so many other social workers, the salaries tend to be rather below what is desirable.

A subject which has not been dealt with very much today is international youth exchange. I am sorry to quote my town continually, but in 1948 we set up in Southampton something called the International Youth Rally. We exchanged young people on a home-to-home basis. That is the best of ail bases for international youth exchanges The scheme grew from two countries to six countries. It now involves eight countries. About 15 to 20 youngsters from eight different countries come to Southampton for a fortnight each year. Our youngsters visit the various other countries on a home-to-home exchange basis in the following fortnight.

Those of us who are interested in this matter and co-operate in this rally in Southampton arrange all sorts of activities. For five years my wife and I acted as youth leaders and took parties abroad to the various other countries.

This sort of thing is invaluable. The benefit gained by the youngsters is tremendous. It was even more in the early stages because there was not then the fully developed range of school exchanges and visits which take place now. This scheme is still going strong after 25 years. Last year we added the United States to the range of countries as a new venture. It is a wonderful fortnight in Southampton when all these youngsters meet together from seven European countries and the United States. I wish that other local authorities and towns would operate the same type of scheme.

The scheme receives a grant from the local authority. Now that the old Southampton local authority has ceased to exist, I hope that the grant will be continued by the new authority. But a large amount of money is raised by all sorts of functions in Southampton, and many people co-operate in this matter. This is a very valuable part of the youth service, and I wish it could be extended elsewhere.

I have some doubts about Clause 3 and the youth assembly. I am not sure whether the provisions will add very much to what is done in many places. It may be that in some backward areas there is a need for something of this nature. If I happen to serve on the Committee, perhaps other hon. Members will be able to convince me of the necessity for these provisions.

I am not entirely convinced about the provisions of Clause 1. My experience is that setting up too many joint committees for youth work can be a handicap rather than an asset. Obviously, we want to bring into youth work in any area a combination of the statutory and the voluntary. Sometimes there are difficulties in doing that because the statutory and the voluntary clash. We all have experience of that. But I am not sure whether we want to set up a formalised committee structure to do this.

I give a general welcome to the Bill, but I hope that there will be a number of changes before it reaches the statute book, as I hope it will.