Youth advice workers stage rally against Connexions cuts

Article published: Friday, March 18th 2011

Youth advice workers wearing David Cameron and Nick Clegg masks staged a lunchtime protest against 60 per cent cuts to the careers and employment guidance service Connexions outside the Moss Side Powerhouse on Wednesday 16 March.

In Manchester alone £1.3 million has been slashed as part of a 10.9 per cent national cut to the Early Intervention Grant, which funds the service. Kate Russell, who organised the demonstration together with her trade union Unison, told MULE that 115 jobs in Manchester were ending through compulsory redundancy.

20 demonstrators outside the Moss Side Powerhouse library and youth centre chanted ‘hell no, we won’t go’ in defiance against cuts to Connexions. The service offers career advice and guidance to all young people aged between 13 and 19 and further support to vulnerable groups.

Simultaneous protests were held across the North West in towns and cities including Liverpool, Tameside, Warrington, Chester, Blackpool, Bolton and Crewe.

Russell explained what was at risk: ‘We…pick up on vulnerable young people and help them find support over problems with health issues, drug use, and homelessness. We identify those with disabilities, and provide them with support until they are 24 years old. All of this will go as they close down our service.’

Many universal services, such as the right of all pupils to see a Connexions advisor in their last year of school, are to end, with the council stating it will focus what remains on those ‘furthest away from the jobs market’, such as people unemployed for over three months. Russell warned of the dangers of young people receiving support too late: ‘It’s easier to move people straight on but once you’ve been unemployed for longer it gets harder to move people into work.’

Losing a generation

The cuts come at a time when youth unemployment is the highest since comparable records began in 1992, with almost one million 16-24-year-olds out of work according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics. Unemployment, declining last year, is once more on the rise: currently 2.53 million people across the country as a whole, eight per cent of the labour force, are unable to find work.

Gary Cleaver, a Unison organiser for the North West, criticised the government for attacking Connexions at a time when many young people are unable to find work. ‘Central government needs to consider the knock-on effects. I’d seriously say they need to reconsider and invest in our future,’ said Cleaver, who added the need to ‘pressure local authorities to lobby the government’ in defence of the ‘valued service’.

According to the government an ‘all-age career guidance’ service, pledged in the Conservative election manifesto, is to be introduced to cover all adults by April 2012 to plug the gap. However, no details have yet been announced and Russell explained how the situation left schools, which will be expected to ‘buy in’ careers guidance as needed, with ‘no information as to how to supplement’ what might be offered. Cleaver added it was ‘incredibly difficult to tie MPs down on the details’ of what new employment guidance will be offered and headteachers in the Association of School and College Leaders estimate that over two million young people might be affected before the replacement is brought in.

Hugh Thomas, 34, a community personnel advisor for Connexions who provides one-to-one support for people who have issues with mental health, homelessness or drug use, condemned the gutting of services for young people. He said, ‘The government needs to sort their heads out. They’ve got a responsibility to future generations, not just ours.

‘We can’t just live in a dog-eat-dog society.’

Richard Goulding

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Comments

1. Back to the eighties?

   If only.

   To do that we’d have to get hundreds of thousands more people off the public payroll than even the current government proposes, and drastically scale back state sanctioned idleness schemes like Incapacity Benefit and the vast growth in ‘disabled’ status. We’d also have to do away with pseudo-illnesses like ADHD.

   I advise these connexions staff to look on the bright side. At least their expertise in careers advice should help them get another job. However, I suspect that for many of them their only experience of the jobs market will be getting a job at Connexions during New Labours vast boom in public employment of dubious efficiency and value to the public.

   Comment by simon on March 18, 2011 at 3:39 pm

2. […] Go here to read the rest: Youth advice workers stage rally against Connexions cuts — MULE […]

   Pingback by Youth advice workers stage rally against Connexions cuts — MULE | Adult Society on March 18, 2011 at 9:27 pm

3. Simon – is this a cry for help? Trollie troll troll disease.

   Comment by Sue on March 23, 2011 at 7:51 pm

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