One of the significant developments within youth work and young people came at the start of World War 2 (1939). Circular 1486 – The Service of Youth was released in (Nov 1939) which identified the needs to form a Youth Service in England and Wales. The Government wanted to provide a new kind of youth provision which would reduce the problems seen from the first world war, that of delinquency and juvenile behaviour. This gave 14 voluntary youth organisations the right to nominate representatives to new local youth committees, empowered to oversee the development of youth provision in their areas. The circular bestowed on these organisations an official status. (Davis B, 2008). This was followed a year later with Circular 1516, The Challenge of Youth that gave guidance on youth committees.
Youth work helped to develop a young person’s identity, understand values and look at their beliefs. The lower classes were seen as uneducated with time on their hands. This leading to hanging about on the streets and involving themselves in criminal activities. Youth work moved into the streets and invited a mixture of young people, particularly of lower classes into leisure and educational activities that helped lower the crime rate.
The importance of education began to grow and this was seen with the (1944) Education Act. Additional circulars stated how the Youth Service was providing opportunities. This started to take youth organisations away from the military stance it held. Youth organisations leant towards new models of youth work, such as centre based, and street based work and aimed at working with young people whom may have been socially excluded, thus encouraging inclusion within society. At the end of World War 2 (1945), the Government began to recognise that Britain needed to make changes on its education, housing and employment. It would hope to see a rise in earnings and employment as Britain moved further into industrialisation. The Fletcher report (1951) saw the need for training in youth work to help the development of young people, which lead to the Albemarle report (1960).
The Albemarle report (1960) was influenced by the circular 1486 – the service of youth, suggesting that local authorities take responsibility for young people’s welfare. The report has attained significance within youth work in England and Wales. It is seen as a watershed whose significance went well beyond the boost it gave to the resources available to the work. Bernard Davies, for example, presents it as seeking to adapt youth work’s image, style and philosophy to a new age and especially to a new youth culture (1986: 99). The Albemarle Report is sometimes presented as heralding a golden age of youth work, where workers and trainers were confident in their actions, where resources flowed into buildings and staffing, and where there was some intellectual debate about theory and practice. (Smith M, 2002)
The Albemarle was a high point within the development of services for all young people. It sanctioned young peoples’ right to question social ideas. The report highlighted four main areas for the youth service; professional training, more youth centres to encourage social interaction, projects to work with the unattached youth (detached work) and to build on strengthening the relationship between the voluntary and statutory services. Significantly another move forward for the development of young people. A Committee was lined up to review the work of the Youth Service in England and Wales. For some years there had been various campaigns in the media (particularly the popular press) around what was perceived as an emerging 'youth problem'. With what appeared to be a significant growth in adolescent and teenage delinquency; the emergence of a more obviously 'teenage' culture linked to fashion and music was recognised. Just a few months prior to the appointment of the Committee there were riots in Nottingham and London (especially in Notting Hill and Brixton) centred around 'race' - and involving large numbers of younger people. Unsurprisingly given all the media attention, there was also growing disquiet among MPs and concerns about the government's performance (Smith, M, 2002)
One disturbance in particular was the racially motivated Notting Hill and St Ann’s Well Road riots, this made youth culture headlines.
In August 1958, large-scale riots broke out in Nottingham where 2,500 Afro-Caribbean’s and about 600 Asians were living. Many attacks, and the clashes that often followed, were stimulated by fascist propaganda urging that black people be driven out of Britain. On weekend evenings in particular, gangs of ‘teddy boys’ cruised the streets over a wide area of London (armed with iron bars, sticks and knives). Many of these youth groups were directed by Mosleyites and the White Defence League, under the watchful eye of the police (the Notting Hill riot was a result of this). (Hubpages 2009)
Teddy boys were the first post war sub-culture. This was seen as a new sort of social problem. They were seen as delinquents with a glamorous style, this offered all working class boys a desirable image. Delinquency as stated by Edwin Sutherland, used the theory of differential association. He argued that criminal behaviour is ‘learnt’ and argued the point that delinquent behaviour depended as much on available patterns of social life as on people’s dispositions. Frith, S (1984).
Active in stirring up such feelings were Oswald Mosley (1896-1980) and his fascist Union Movement. Mosley had made immigration the focus of his campaigning. Rather than highlighting the inadequacy of the bourgeois state in meeting the needs of the working classes, Mosley made a scapegoat of the Caribbean immigrants. They were targeted for ‘stealing’ white’s jobs and housing. This is believed to have influenced the Teddy Boys attacks. Cultural differences were also played up; attacking Caribbean’s for failing to assimilate into a ‘British way of life’. The most visible symbol of change in their neighbourhoods had been the influx of Caribbean’s. In such a way the fascists were able to exploit common, working-class deprivation, and split the class on racial grounds. (Communiststudents 2009)
This leads on to the Thatcher years (1979 – 1990) and how this changed the policies in place. This was an era of distaste to many. Thatcher plotted to smash the National Union of Mineworkers and break down the welfare state along with the reforms that had been fought for over decades by the working class. Thatcherism took the `holistic approach` which meant that we all took responsibility for ourselves. This had a huge impact on the youth provisions that in turn influenced heavily on the development of young people. Additional programmes such as Youth Opportunity Programmes (1977) were in place with a focus on the disadvantaged and in 1981, Youth Training Schemes were implemented. This saw the social development of young people move towards achievement through education, subsequently taking away some of the choices, freedom and equality between the social classes. Youth unemployment hit 50% in some areas. This was at a time when only a minority went into sixth form and even fewer into university. In many industrial areas it was said that people walked out of the school yard into the mill, the pits or the shipyards.
Apprentice schools closed down and the factory gates were shut. In the summer of 1981 the anger of the youth erupted into rioting. Essentially they were outbursts of anger and frustration which were irritated by youth unemployment, racist policing and terrible social conditions. The class nature of society was as close to revolution as it has been at any time since the General Strike of 1926 in the 1970s. (Terry McPartlan 2009)
The general election of 1997 brought about a new change of government. New Labour was the party in power and with it came new challenges for the youth service and its young people.
OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) have a framework for inspecting youth services. The Government has placed a greater emphasis on accountability and targets thus ensuring that young people are being looked after. The inspections look at information on monitoring, evaluation, resources, attendance, face-to-face time and the quality of young people’s experiences. It looks at young people’s personal development, including their attitudes, values and self-confidence. This demonstrates the wish to help young people with their social development.
With the Labour Government at the helm, we have seen many changes. New Labour put funding back into the youth services. The Government wanted and still does wish to protect our children’s and young people’s welfare. There are key policies and partnerships that have taken the physical and social development of children and young people forward. The Connexions strategy that was launched in 2000 was one of a number of Government initiatives targeting disadvantaged youth. It aimed to address the large numbers of young people leaving school with limited or no qualifications, and hoped to increase the numbers of 18-year-olds staying in education. The agenda was to bring together existing and future policies for young people.
In 2001, Transforming Youth Work and the Connexions strategy defined a way of providing young people with a personal advisor for advice, support and a way to help young people feel that they were socially included and that there was help out there. The Transforming youth work set out the Governments view on how youth work and Youth Services can support the Connexions Service. The agenda calls for a number of key changes such as improving quality and clarity, clearer outcomes, sharpening recorded achievements, recruitment and training, reaching out to a wide client group and the implementation of the youth service pledge. (Smith, M, 2001)
In 2003, we saw the Every Child Matters guidance representing the five outcomes for the welfare of a child or young person. This aims to ensure young people achieve their potential. (Every Child Matters 2003). We then saw the Youth Matters 2005.
The aim was to organise services around the needs of young people, their parents and carers, rather than around organisational or professional silos, is critical. This must apply equally throughout the teenage years, as it does for younger ages, as the risks and challenges young people face evolve. (Youth Matters 2005)
The history of youth work has followed changes within the political beliefs of the Government at that time. From the very beginning, the youth service development seemed to be a struggle and its focus seemed to be based on meeting the needs of young males. Throughout, various people have tried to play a role within society’s needs, which have continually changed to try to meet the needs of young people. The decline and growth of the welfare state influenced and affected the service and the young person’s development at each turn, with new policies replacing old policies, again having their affect on the service.
We see secondary socialisation moving forward due to the participation of external agencies and support for the service and young people. Inclusion within society provides a way for a young person to earn social status through participation within the youth service. Considering current policies such as Every Child Matters (2003) and Youth Matters (2005) there has been notable changes to help the development of young people through an array of different services available, which includes the youth service. There is now monitoring and evaluating in place through current policies and the recording of progress of a young person which helps give site to the overall development of a young person from a very early age as well as regulating the service.
WORD COUNT 2713
References
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