The 2015 Report: Youth work

In parts of London, cuts of 90 per cent are planned, while in Trafford, all youth centres are likely to close. This will bite deep into all areas of youth work.

Local authorities are in an invidious position – no one wants to see one crucial public service withdrawn to pay for another, but authorities do have a pivotal role in securing the local offer. Good youth work has a preventative effect on young people and these massive cuts are short-sighted, as for many young people it will mean they need more intensive and costly service interventions in the long term. The loss of independent inspection and core funding for organisations like my own means we have no rigorous means to compare inputs, quality and outcomes between one area and another. What you don't measure is an easy target for cuts.

There is an ideological tension between councils being in charge of what they spend and the view that government must intervene to ensure all young people receive a consistent level of service. In this context, it is clear why a statutory duty on councils has never been supported by the coalition govern-ment and it seems unlikely that any new government is going to restrict what little resource they will have by committing to such a duty in advance.

With youth populations rising rapidly in parts of the UK and further pressure on council services, there is no escaping the bleak outlook for youth work and, more worryingly, many young people.

Meanwhile, there seems to be a raft of initiatives underpinned by youth work methodologies or with a direct interest in supporting youth work. These include National Citizen Service, Step Up To Serve, youth-led social enterprises, the rise in faith-based youth work and the funding made available by the Cabinet Office to set up youth mutuals. It is hard to know if these initiatives are the seeds of a nascent reformation of youth work that will replace traditional models or a distraction from the real impact cuts in youth work budgets will have on young people's lives.

Key changes

• The government should recognise the value of youth work and strengthen the duty on local authorities to secure a local offer
• Councils should implement a youth work strategy, which brings together commissioned or delivered activities with government schemes such as the National Citizen Service and resources from areas like health and justice
• The government must resource and support social investment in youth work, developing outcomes and measurement tools that will help fund future activity

Election manifesto pledge

Give 16-year-olds the vote. Politicians are not currently accountable to young people for their decisions - enfranchising young people could change the landscape dramatically.

Fiona Blacke is chief executive of the National Youth Agency