Blog by Rosie Ferguson Chief Executive| UK Youth

Six months into my role at UK Youth, after nearly a decade outside the youth sector, I’ve been struck by two things.

The first is the scale of the challenge.

Over the last fifteen years youth work has been steadily eroded. You don’t need me to tell you again that local authority spending on youth services in England has fallen by more than 70% since 2010, representing a real-terms reduction of more than £1.2 billion. In practical terms this has meant the loss of thousands of youth worker roles and the closure of more than 1,000 youth centres across the country.