The latest National Youth Sector Census paints an uneasy picture. Across the country, youth organisations are reporting escalating demand from young people facing serious risks such as mental ill health (84%), violence, violence against women and girls and crime (48%), and help with safeguarding issues and online harm (47%). Meanwhile, the services designed to support them are also at risk, of collapse.
Youth workers are working incredibly hard to help young people but are spending just as much energy (or perhaps even more) trying to keep the lights on and their doors open. Looking at the numbers, the boiling frog fable feels pertinent. The frog in tepid water that slowly comes to boil does not sense the danger and dies. Over consecutive governments we've seen the temperature rise and now we are in uncomfortably hot water. We are hopeful the National Youth Strategy will stop the youth sector becoming synonymous with the metaphor, and the red flags are heeded.
