Lynne Featherstone

Spoke yesterday to the National Council of Voluntary Youth Services. Strikes me that the Government’s shift to making the voluntary sector deliver services is full of all sorts of dangers. Too much to go into here – but from those in the room it is clear that there are huge concerns about funding; the nature of the hoops that volunteers have to go through – even if they are still relatively small organisations where people only give a couple of hours; the media’s incessant attacks on young people; the bias against funding for faith based organisations by local authorities – and the list went on. Much for me to think about particularly in relationship to the new Liberal Democrat policies on youth which I am responsible for and am just embarking upon.