Prime Minister is right to target disaffected youth - but he has his work cut out
The Government's pledge of an extra £88 million towards youth services is to be welcomed.
It is especially heartening that Shropshire has been chosen for one of 12 pilot schemes across the UK, although we await further details of where this will be, and how it will work.
The Prime Minister is rightly concerned that children are becoming isolated, spending too much time in their bedrooms glued to their mobile phones, rather than getting out and about and mixing with other youngsters from different backgrounds.
Sir Keir Starmer says £7.5 million will be made available for Scouts, Guides, and similar youth organisations, with a further £22.5 million to be shared across 400 schools over the next three years to fund extra-curricular activities such as art, music, debating or volunteering. Another £30.5 million is to be spent on youth clubs in areas with the highest child poverty.
The Prime Minister is right to concerned about disengagement among young people, and the potential this has to feed into all manner of social problems, not least the growing scourge of knife crime. Keeping young people busy with wholesome, constructive activities is a laudable one, and there is much truth in the adage that 'the Devil makes work for idle hands'.
But while providing the money is a start, that could well prove to be the easy part - it is likely to take much more than money to persuade disaffected young people on the periphery of criminal activity that their efforts would be better directed in an art class or debating society. Many schools, particularly in the more deprived areas, face a difficult enough challenge getting pupils to turn up regularly for lessons. Asking them to stay behind for extracurricular activities may prove a tall order.
The second problem is will £88.5 million be anywhere near enough? Faced with the billions spent on marketing by the social media giants and the gaming corporations, the Government is going to face a stiff challenge luring people away from their screens.
Sir Keir is right to identify isolation and disenchantment among young people as the root cause of many problems in society, and we can only wish him well in his efforts to eradicate it.
But nobody should be in any doubt about the size of the task he faces.
