The impact of cuts in youth services will be detailed at trade union Unison’s annual conference next month.
Delegates will be warned that the cuts will lead to higher youth unemployment, less empowerment among young people, an increase in mental health and substance abuse issues, and particular problems for young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
A motion submitted to the conference said there had already been an increase in these problems following the ‘massive cuts’ in youth and community services.
The motion by Unison’s youth and community workers committee said cuts of several hundred thousand pounds had been ‘commonplace’ between 2012 and 2014.
It read: ‘In some authorities as much as three-quarters of the youth service budget has been cut while in others the whole service has been cut. These cuts have led to hundreds of Unison members losing their jobs.
‘Conference further notes that youth services will suffer far worse cuts between now and 2015/16, as the full impact of the Government’s local government funding cuts becomes evident.
‘Conference believes that fully funded youth services, provided by trained professional youth workers and youth support workers, are a crucial element of support for young people. The relationships developed between youth work professionals and young people provide immense benefit to young people and their communities. They help young people make their own choices in life, for example in employment and education, and they reduce the burden on other services such as the health service, social care and justice system.