Young people will descend on parliament to protect their ‘vanishing
service’
10 October 2011
Choose Youth lobby of parliament
WHEN: Tuesday 25 October, 11.30am – 4pm
WHERE: Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, SW1 9NH
Hundreds of young people will travel to Westminster on Tuesday
25 October to warn MPs that the youth service will soon be the
first public service to fall under the coalition’s austerity
axe.
Unite, the UK’s largest union, has repeatedly warned that that
the youth service is vanishing fast in the face of massive budget
cuts, the biggest to any public service. This summer saw strike
action in the prime minister’s Oxfordshire constituency to defend a
service lauded by him but now facing the axe.
One in five councils are reporting that ‘services for young
people’ were bearing a proportionally larger share of the cuts in
2011/12.
With one million young people languishing on the dole queue, the
union says that young people need more - not less - assistance to
find jobs, to seek out further educational opportunities, to avoid
gang culture, and to feel they have a future stake in society.
Media are invited to attend the day, which will see a diverse
programme of speakers. There is also the opportunity to speak
to young people travelling from as far afield as Devon and the
north west to London in order to lobby their MPs.
Choose Youth is an alliance of over 30 national youth sector
organisations and trade unions, including Unite.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
A full programme of the day will be released early next
week.
Media are invited to attend but must book beforehand, please
contact Chantal Chegrinec, Unite press office, on 07774 414 6777 or
020 3371 2063
