Youth Matters: heralding an 

extended regime of
charging

It is clear that the amount of money on the table from the

government for the youth offer is nothing like the amount
required. Furthermore, Youth Matters offers no evidence to
support its claim that ‘putting spending power in the hands of
young people will make sports and constructive activities more
affordable’ (HM Government 2005 [Youth Matters]; para
109). While there may be some state-funded one-off credits to
the card (more if you fall into some risk or disadvantage
category), many of the activities will have to be provided at
cost – so there will be a significant extension of
charging. Youth Matters is in no way close to being the youth
equivalent of the English Sure Start programme.

As we have seen the primary site for the ‘youth offer’ will be
the extended school. In the Extended School Prospectus (DfES
2005b) it was announced that £680 million would be available
to fund the expansion for 2005-8 (of which £250 million will
go directly to schools and £430 million to local authorities).
This level of funding will also decrease significantly post 2008.
The Prospectus explicitly encourages schools to charge parents
for the childcare and other activities they provide (DfES
2005b: 27). While it is possible for parents to apply for the
childcare element of the Working Tax Credit – it is not
apparent what sort of other activity elements can be included.
Whatever the outcome here it is clear is that extended schools
and, by implication, the ‘youth offer’ will involve the
development of a significant charging regime. Even when this
extended schooling money is added to youth service monies, it
is obvious that with the expected increase in take-up of
sporting and other activity the only option for most schools
(and other agencies such as sports centres) will be to charge at
close to full cost. There is some mention of additional monies
in Youth Matters possibly being available after the youth
opportunity card/young people’s activity accounts have been
piloted – but this is likely to be targeted funding. Furthermore,
for schools and agencies in areas of significant deprivation –
where people do not have the money to pay for additional
services – we may well find that it is only certain groups that
have the resources to access activities – even with the
intervention of the youth opportunities card.