News Round-Up
The Testament of Youth
Two Iconic Brands Launch UK-Wide Initiative to Better Support Young People
The iconic golden arches of fast-food giant McDonald’s represent a gateway which, according to digital ranking agency DesignRush, hark back to the humble origins of the multi-billion-dollar brand to symbolise “a place of stability where customers can relax and enjoy a burger after a blistering day at work”.
The simple ‘M’ of the world’s nineth most valuable brand is a multi-generational magnet that attracts a customer loyalty from the ages of six to 60, but it is particularly attractive to a younger demographic, many of whom are looking for that stability in an increasingly unstable world to plug a major gap created by a growing vacuum in children’s services.
This is why the home of the iconic “Big Mac” has continued its strategic partnership with BBC Children in Need with a new initiative to fund 500 youth worker qualifications to put vital support back into communities decimated by swinging local authority cuts over the last fourteen years.
Following an eighteen-month pilot, McDonald’s is also poised to create 1,450 safe spaces for young people by connecting all of its restaurants with some of the much-needed youth services.
Since the start of its partnership with BBC Children in Need, McDonald’s has supported more than 185 youth projects employing more than 320 youth workers and improving outcomes for over 42,500 young people, but the business is now being even more ambitious with the roll-out of its “Makin’ It” initiative nationwide to better support young people and unlock genuine opportunity.
The Decline of Youth Services
Research among two thousand 16–24-year-olds conducted by market research company OnePoll on behalf of McDonald’s, revealed that 44 per cent of young people today don’t feel properly supported in their communities following the closure of 900+ youth centres and loss of 4,500 youth workers.
The new research highlighted the impact of growing challenges and uncertainty young people are facing when it comes to the future, with some stark issues raised in terms of support, career opportunities, and safe places to go.
Almost half of those polled (44 per cent) didn’t feel there were enough projects in their area aimed at providing support and opportunities for them. In addition, young people felt there are a lack of opportunities, and barriers to success.
As a result, over half (51 per cent) had reduced their expectations for the future, and almost a third (27 per cent) admitted they’ve become less ambitious altogether.
Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) also stated they worry often about the future, yet only 11 per cent said they had a youth worker or counsellor to turn to for support.
This is exacerbated when it comes to aspirations and their dream careers, with many young people feeling that society’s negative view of them is a key barrier to their success. Depressingly, only 24 per cent of young people felt they are viewed positively by society.
YMCA Report and Campaign
The youth centre closure figures in the McDonald’s survey were gleaned from the YMCA’s D£valued: A Decade of Cuts to Youth Services report published in February 2022.
The report was an update of the YMCA’s Out of Service report published in 2020 which first revealed the true extent of cuts to youth services funding by local authorities in England and Wales since 2010, with an allocation of just under £429 million in 2018/19, compared to £1.4 billion in 2010/11—a real-terms decline of 70 per cent.
According to the YMCA, the day-to-day impact of youth services often goes unnoticed by the public, but the consequences of these cuts cannot be underestimated.
Cases of knife crime, mental health difficulties and isolation among young people continue to rise, while the number of services available to positively intervene and prevent such cases continue to decline.
The YMCA’s 2022 D£valued report highlighted the continual decline in youth services, pointing to the fact that the global pandemic compounded the challenges.
COVID-19, the report argued, forced a shift in how youth services operated throughout many months—from a closure of centres to shifting services online, to safely providing vital social and recreational time for young people outside of the house.
As youth services began to resume to business-as-usual clubs and services, the needs of young people they sought to welcome through their doors had clearly become more complex than prior to the pandemic. National lockdowns, school closures, virus contagion, and isolation all shifted how young people were able to live, learn, and play.
Loneliness and low-level mental health concerns were longstanding prior to the pandemic. Now these issues had been exacerbated, with fewer resources to build friendships and resilience.
This report included, for the first time, analysis on how widely spend per five to 17-year-old differs across local authorities, exposing the disparity in opportunities available for them depending on where they live and revealing the postcode lottery of regional variations on spend “per head”—up to 100 per cent cuts in youth service provision in some local authority areas.
Indeed, certain regions have had expenditure tightened more than others. In the East of England this fell in real terms by 63 per cent, and by 68 per cent in Outer London. Comparatively speaking, expenditure has fallen in real terms by 88 per cent in the West Midlands, 83 per cent in the North East, and 77 per cent in the South East since 2010/11.
Year-on-year, however, only Outer London had an increase in expenditure from 2019/20 (11 per cent). The North East (19 per cent), South West (19 per cent), and Inner London (10 per cent) actually experienced double-digit falls in funding.
In Wales, funding in Mid-Wales fell by 51 per cent between 2010/11 and 2020/21, while South-West Wales experienced a 22 per cent decline. Equally, in the last financial year, North Wales and South-East Wales both fell (12 per cent and 5 per cent respectively).
The axe had fallen heavily in parts of England with, at one end of the scale, the complete closure of youth services for 5-7-year-olds to, at the other extreme, highest spending authority at £184.36 spent per head on youth services. This was in Blaenau, Gwent in Wales, although, ironically, it too had seen cuts of 13 per cent in youth services over the last fourteen years.
Each year YMCA supports almost 40,000 young people through its youth work, with almost eight thousand participants involved in crime prevention and avoidance programmes.
Call for the Re-Instatement of Youth Service Funding
By re-instating the levels of youth services funding to that of 2010/11 in real terms, and introducing a national youth services strategy, the Government would enable local authorities to deliver necessary youth services locally and support their communities.
In the Out of Service report, Denise Hatton, chief executive of YMCA England & Wales, said:“Youth services exist to provide a sense of belonging, a safe space, and the opportunity for young people to enjoy being young. However, local authorities have struggled under the weight of funding pressures, meaning youth services are being forced to endure continued and damaging cuts”.
“No part of society could be expected to suffer almost a billion-pounds worth of real term cuts and for there to be no consequences across our communities. However, young people’s needs continue to be brushed aside by decision makers as unworthy of support”.
“The reality behind these figures is that since 2010, more than 4,500 youth work jobs have been cut, and 760 youth centres have closed. We believe this is unacceptable. Without drastic action to protect funding and significantly re-invest in youth services, we are condemning young people to become a lonely, lost generation with nowhere to turn”.
The new Labour administration elected on 4 July had youth services in its manifesto for “Change” which said: “For a statutory Youth Service to be successful, Labour in Government must work with local Government and youth service providers and charities to ensure that the service has the powers locally to ensure that it has the best effect and outcomes for young people”.
Makin’ It
While the new Government prioritises the areas for focus and investment, McDonald’s—the UK’s largest private sector youth employer—has made a strong start on a new direction for youth services by expanding its partnership with BBC Children in Need, bringing on board “Kick it Out” and “Youth Music” to build Makin’ It—a programme that provides young people with genuine opportunity in the areas they live in.
The pilots have provided access to welcoming and safe spaces for 16-24-year-olds in restaurants, and vital positive relationships through connections with youth workers and youth projects specifically matched to local restaurants and franchisees.
McDonald’s employs more young people than any other business. and by 2030 the business aims to bring another million people into jobs, skills, and training. To ensure there are equal opportunities amongst young people in the UK, the McDonald’s Makin’ It campaign is:
Working with BBC Children in Need and the Irish Youth Foundation to partner with youth projects on a town-by-town basis and open its restaurant doors to give youth workers a place to meet, share advice, and transform young lives.
Working with BBC Children in Need to help rebuild youth services, supporting up to 500 youth workers to become qualified to support children and young people within our communities.
Diverting a percentage of McDonald’s unspent Apprenticeship Levy to support even more youth workers to undertake their youth work apprenticeship in England.
Partnering with specialist music and football charities to create grassroots programmes which will open up meaningful opportunities and real-world training for young people.
Musician AJ Tracey, who got his start in a youth project, is one of the ambassadors for the initiative. The British rapper and songwriter voices a hard-hitting spoken word film to launch Makin’ It, calling out the hardships many young people face, as well as the pivotal role youth workers can play in their lives, through offering invaluable advice, guidance, and mentorship, as well as connecting them with opportunities in their local area.
Makin’ It has already made a meaningful impact to young people’s lives, with an eighteen-month pilot phase opening doors for young people in restaurants in towns across the UK & Ireland. More than seventy restaurants were paired with local youth projects and youth workers, giving young people in these communities a safe place to seek support. These restaurants are now facilitating regular drop-in sessions, workshops, training, and informal meetings for youth workers and young people.
BBC Children in Need project workers, David, Rianne, and Stacey, who are featured in the film, are three of many youth workers who work for youth projects across the country that are now using McDonald’s restaurants as a base to connect with young people in their communities.
McDonald’s has committed to providing resource and funding to enable all young people to get access to genuine opportunities where they live, including music partnerships, and sports programmes to be launched this summer.
McDonald’s UK & Ireland vice president Impact Andrew Moys explained why the company has been investing in this groundbreaking initiative:“It’s no secret that young people today are facing some incredibly challenging times, particularly when it comes to accessing trusted adult support and opportunities. Over the last eighteen months we’ve seen first-hand the difference that can be made through connecting our restaurants directly with youth services and youth workers. Young people, who often have nowhere to go and no one to speak to can now access the support they need, in an environment they feel comfortable in. The scale of our restaurant estate and dedication of our 200 franchisees in communities across the UK and Ireland, mean we have the ability to make a real impact on the lives of young people. “Makin It” is about frontline change—it is youth work embedded into that specific local area, it is access to warm, welcoming spaces that young people know and ultimately it provides tangible, local opportunities that will help young people to make it”.
Simon Antrobus, chief executive at BBC Children in Need also said: “The power and impact a positive relationship can have on a young person’s life cannot be underestimated. Our research into youth work shows its profound and long-lasting impact to children and young people, when it comes to accessing support and opportunities. As this recent survey has shown, too many young people are feeling apprehensive about their future, and sadly, unsupported and that’s why our partnership with McDonald’s on this programme is so vital, so that young people can meet a youth worker at a familiar place within their community, where they feel both safe and welcome and can ultimately work together to reach their goals and Make It”.
Loss Prevention Magazine Europe
The McDonald’s and BBC Children in Need initiative is highly reflective of the direction of travel for the retail and hospitality sectors that has been highlighted through the pages of Loss Prevention Magazine Europe during the years covered by the YMCA reports.
In the summer 2021 edition, two articles brought the issue of young people to the fore. The first—Drawing the Line—was the cover story focused on the dangers of child exploitation and grooming of a lost generation lured into a world of drug running as part of the complex networks of county lines.
The second article—Jobs for the Boys and Girls—focused on a plea from the UK’s largest children’s charity Barnardo’s to retail businesses to help get young people into structured employment in post-pandemic Britain.
Tommy McDade, the head of employment and skills at Barnardo’s told Loss Prevention Magazine Europe: “It’s not a straightforward journey for young people—some need more direction in turning their lives around and away from a potential world of criminal behaviour”.
Likewise, UK Youth—a national youth work charity, an umbrella body with forty local youth associations from across England—is calling for more investment into youth work “to set people up for life” after its own research revealed the funding deficit that has befallen the sector.
The research from this national youth work charity, founded in 1911, highlights the positive impact youth work had on young people’s health, well-being, and employability, with the positive effects lasting well into adulthood.
Jacob Diggle, UK Youth’s Chief Impact Officer, said: “This research shows that the positive impacts of youth work are experienced across diverse groups of young people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. This demonstrates the importance of unlocking youth work for all young people”.
“At a time when young people facing severe challenges—to their mental health, employment prospects, hope for the future, even physical safety—this research is further evidence that we need to substantially increase availability of youth services”.
“Youth work is a proven solution to the challenges young people are facing but it is being ignored. We cannot afford not to invest in youth work. Youth work is setting young people up for life”.
The studies show youth workers are providing vital support to help young people navigate the challenges they face.
He said reductions in local youth provision are associated with a rise in certain types of crime and anti-social behaviour, including increases in the number of children cautioned or sentenced, the proportion of young people who re-offend, bike thefts, weapon possession offences, and shoplifting.
He said: “These funding changes have immediate effects—hundreds of youth centres closed, thousands of youth work jobs lost, and young people less safe. As well as this short-term pain, the cost of these missed opportunities will last for decades”.
“The Government’s youth guarantee promises all young people safe places go, meaningful things to do, and experiences to develop and give back to their communities. We need the investment to make this guarantee a reality”.
The new Labour administration inherited a full in-tray when it took office in July, but like McDonald’s, it has hit the ground running in recognising the dangers of a generation lost to austerity cuts, the pandemic and the potential involvement for everything from petty to prolific crime. These individuals are the future who need support and encouragement to become proud and productive as well as valued members of society who are “Makin’ It”.
