Home > Articles > The Albemarle Report, 1960

Article: The Albemarle Report, 1960

First Published: 12th July 2020 | Author: Adam Muirhead | Tags: , , ,

A story of its full transcription 60 years later

The Albemarle Report, 1960

A story of its full transcription 60 years later – Adam Muirhead

It started in 2018 with a question on my blog;

‘Where did the 4 Cornerstones of Youth Work come from’?

Not the Albemarle Report is the answer.  However, this was the first suggestion I had back at the time from someone who seemed fairly sure;  I decided I needed to investigate.  My probing started with a Google search for ‘the Albemarle Report’, hoping to find a copy.  No Report.  What you will find is a really helpful overview by Smith and Doyle (2002) and some of the report chapters, on the infed site, and even some of the related debate in Parliament from 1960 (transcribed) – but what of the thing itself?  I asked around and was kindly sent a roughly scanned copy by an ally.  Aha! I could finally get a feel for the thing from this, but as a scan, there was no way to quickly search within the document for key words or anything.  Reading all 136 pages would be slow – how much would it cost to get the whole thing transcribed by a company?? $248.60 + VAT as it turns out.  Not a hideous cost but it was never going to be the way I’d choose to spend that cash, besides, outsourcing cheaply like this meant it wasn’t going to be spell-checked, formatted and the returned document was likely be a monstrous mess. So, I resolved to do it myself.

Even with OneNote 2016’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, this was a big job and the poor quality of my scanned copy meant that errors were too regular; small printing smudges would add untold grammatical mess whilst blotchy characters meant every 5th word wanted its spelling corrected.  What I needed was an original copy of the report and a half-decent scanner.  As it turns out, even with those things there is a lot of formatting, corrections, adding in whole sentences that it skips for no reason…  Tables were all to be constructed from scratch and their data inputted painstakingly line by line.  So, was it worth it?

Yes!

I’ve gained my own massive insight into this report and it is fascinating!  Here are some of my personal highlights:

  • It gives an incredible picture as to the state of the sector at the end of the 1950’s. I’d agree that this Report was a watershed for our profession, but it’s true that an amazing amount of work had already been happening, and if it hadn’t been for the principles of practice already being there, the Albemarle Report would not have had the solid foundation on which to base its findings and recommendations.
  • Yes, it references delinquency (12 times – which took me all of 5 seconds to discover) as a rationale for the enhancement of the Youth Service. Certainly, parts are couched within a deficit paradigm.  But in other ways, its ethical approach is on the money;  It speaks very clearly to youth participation, equal rights of access for boys and girls and does actually try to dismiss popular public rhetoric about how ‘bad’ the adolescents of the day actually are.
  • Whilst Bernard Davies’ comments in his 1999 account of the Albemarle Report are right in suggesting that the focus of the practice proposed was based on a desire for individual outcomes, the Report more broadly acknowledged society’s responsibility to respond and support young people. It also recognised the social/contextual factors at play, like “the constant threat of nuclear catastrophe” on p29.  This distinguishes the Report’s approach from some of today’s social policy discourse, which can seemingly suggest that one’s own bootstraps is all that are needed to overcome adversity, whatever the societal context.
  • It uses poetry on a few occasions to make its point. See Burns’ work on p31, W.H. Auden on p39 and a reference to ‘Lines to a Don’ by Hilaire Belloc on p48. There’s lots of character woven into the writing!
  • We use the ‘voluntary principle’ these days to describe the way young people choose to take part in activities. The Report actually uses the ‘voluntary principle’ to describe the need and desire for more volunteers to staff/support the delivery.  Just interesting how this term was important then and also now, but for different reasons.
  • The emphasis on the power and value of pure ‘associational’ youth work is inspiring. For instance, on p52 it states “To encourage young people to come together into groups of their own choosing is the fundamental task of the Service.  Their social needs must be met before their needs for training and formal instruction”.  The term ‘Associational Youth Work’ is one I wish was used more now, over ‘Open Access’ or ‘Universal’.
  • It recognises the necessary adaptability and flexibility of services in a way that we would describe as ‘youth-led’. On p55 it states that “there is a kind of footloose group that deliberately prefers the odd, the heterodox rendezvous to the most civilised amenities”, and that Youth Work should be open to meeting their needs too.  ‘Heterodox Rendezvous’ will be the name of the next Detached Youth Work bid I write.
  • In spite of what one commentator (Jeffs, 1979) described as an “ill-prepared” approach to the report’s writing, based on the Albemarle Committee’s desire to work quickly, I found the level of research with stakeholders to inform the report was impressive. All of the witnesses who submitted are listed in Appendix 1, followed up by great long tables of information from them and local education authorities on things like the number of youth centres there were, how many full-time/part-time workers were employed at the time, through to things like expenditure on training.
  • One youth leader who gave evidence to the Albemarle Committee was describing our role in taking the strain of adolescent exuberance from families and suggested we were like “lightning conductors” (p106). It’s not a term I’ve heard used for us since, but I really like the unintended imagery it conjured that was less like a copper rod beside a building, and more like someone trying to lead a chaotic and energetic orchestra!

My hope for this transcription is that it proves interesting and useful for others too, perhaps inspiring an even wider love for the history of Youth Work.

…Oh, and the ‘4 Cornerstones’ are born of the Ministerial Conferences in the 90’s, it seems…

For comments, mockery or suggested amendments, find me on Twitter @youthworkable.

 

A few things to note about how the Albemarle report is availible on Youth and Policy:

  1. The text below is a full transcript of the 1960 report in HTML, so it’s fully searchable (ctrl+F) and clicking on the table of contents will take you to that section.
  2. The tables do not always format properly and the one in appendix 4 is massive! All the tables in the appendices are available in Excel and Open Spreadsheet format. If you want play around with the data, you might want to adjust for inflation. So, funding amounts should be multipled by 235.39 for a 2019 comparison.
  3. You can download Adam’s beautifully presented transcript, with accurate page numbers, Royal Coat of Arms cover page, and monospaced typewriter-like font throughout as a PDF.
  4. For convenience we have provided the transcript in Word and Open Document format.

 

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

The Youth Service in England and Wales

Report of the Committee

Appointed by the Minister of Education

in November, 1958

Presented to Parliament by the Minister of Education

by Command of Her Majesty

February 1960

LONDON

HER MAJESTY’S STATIONARY OFFICE

SIX SHILLINGS NET

 

Cmnd.  929

 

NOTE: The estimated cost of preparing and publishing this Report is £2,225 9s. 1d., of which £1,259 0s. 0d. represents the estimated cost of printing and publication.

 

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

The Countess of Albemarle, D.B.E. (Chairman)

RL Hon. D. F. Vosper. T.D., M.P.

Mr. M. J. S. Clapham

Mr. R. Hoggart

Mr. D. H. Howell

Mr. R. A. Jackson

Miss A. P. Jephcott

Mr. J. Marsh

Mr. L. Paul

Reverend E.A. Shipman

Professor A. G. Watkins

Dr. J. W. Welch

Councillor Mrs. E. M. Wormald, J.P.

Secretary: Mr. E. J. Sidebottom, H.M.I

Assistant Secretary: Mr. E. B. Granshaw

 

Contents

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Youth Service Yesterday and Today

CHAPTER 2: Young People Today Part I: THE CHANGING SCENE

CHAPTER 2: Young People Today PART II: THE WORLD OF YOUNG PEOPLE

CHAPTER 3: Justification and Aims of the Youth Service

CHAPTER 4: The Youth Service Tomorrow

CHAPTER 5: Activities and Facilities

CHAPTER 6: Staffing and Training

CHAPTER 7: Finance

CHAPTER 8: The Position in Wales

CHAPTER 9: The Youth Service and Society – A New Focus

CHAPTER 10: Recommendations and Priorities

APENDICIES

 

 

Introduction

1.     The Committee was appointed by the Minister of Education in November, 1958. We were given the following terms of reference: “To review the contribution which the Youth Service of England and Wales can make in assisting young people to play their part in the life of the community, in the light of changing social and industrial conditions and of current trends in other branches of the education service; and to advise according to what priorities best value can be obtained for the money spent.”

2.     We were appointed at a most crucial time. First, because several aspects of national life, to which the Youth Service is particularly relevant, are today causing widespread and acute concern. These include serious short-term problems, such as that of the ‘bulge’ in the adolescent population. They include also much more complex and continuous elements of social change, elements to which adolescents are responding sharply and often in ways which adults find puzzling or shocking. Secondly, because it soon became clear to us that the Youth Service itself is in a critical condition. We have struck by the unanimity of evidence from witnesses (and their views out by our own observations) on these points:

(i)    that the Youth Service is at present in a state of acute depression. All over the country and in every part or the Service there are devoted workers. And in some areas the inspiration of exceptional individuals or organisations, or the encouragement of local education authorities, have kept spirits unusually high. But in general we believe it true to say that those who work in the Service feel themselves neglected and held in small regard, both in educational circles and by public opinion generally. We have been told time and time again that the Youth Service is ‘dying on its feet’ or ‘out on a limb’. Indeed, it has more than once been suggested to us that the appointment of our own Committee was either ‘a piece of whitewashing’ or an attempt to find grounds for ‘killing’ the Service. These are distressing observations, but we feel they have to be recorded since they indicate accurately the background of feeling among many of those engaged in the Service; they should therefore be fully appreciated at the very of our Report. No Service can do its best work in such an atmosphere;

(ii)   that our witnesses were nevertheless in no way disheartened about the fundamental value of the Service. They gave us the firm impression (and again this was supported by our own observations) that a properly nourished Youth Service is profoundly worthwhile; and that it is of special importance in a society subject to the kinds of change which we have noted above and which we shall describe later.

3.     We have therefore been meeting in conditions of quite unusual urgency and with a sense of working against time. As a result we have not undertaken any large-scale research projects what is a very wide field. These can be carried out once the main justification and aims of the Service have been established. Many enquiries have indeed already been made, but have so far produced little positive action. Again, we hope that our statement of principles and policy will allow these earlier enquiries, and some which are going on at present, to be enlisted in the improvement of a revivified Youth Service.

4.     In short, we have thought of ourselves as a charting committee and have tried, as urgently as is compatible with thoroughness and comprehensiveness, to tackle the essential questions: to establish the place of the Youth Service in the larger social and educational scene; to chart a desirable course; and to outline those measures (for both the short and the long-term) which will best give the whole Service the new heart it so badly needs.

5.     The chapters which follow fall into main groups.

 

First, after surveying the history, present scope and limitations of the Service (Chapter 1), we review the changing and try to assess the impact on young people of these changes (Chapter 2). We then set out to re-establish the social and individual justification for the Youth Service.  Chapter 2, Part II and Chapter 3 contain our fundamental thinking on needs, aims and principles.

 

               Second, we have sought to build upon this foundation the framework for a Youth Service which will be adequate to the needs of young people. We therefore formulate the tasks of the various partners in the Service (Chapter 4), and suggest the opportunities, activities and facilities which need to be provided (Chapter 5).

 

               Third, we examine and emphasise the responsibilities which flow from our re-phrasing of the scope of the Youth Service, and make our specific recommendations (Chapters 6—10).

 

6.     It will be quickly seen that we believe a considerable expansion is needed in the provision made for the Youth Service. No less will do since, at a time when it should have been receiving exceptional encouragement, the Service has been allowed slowly to lose confidence. Two kinds of measure are therefore needed:

(i)    blood-transfusions: that is, short-term measures to meet immediate needs (e.g. the problem of the “bulge”). These may require emergency expenditure.

(ii)   measures for sustained and continuous nourishment.

7.     We propose provision for planned development over two five-year periods under the surveillance of a Development Council. The main emphasis in the first five years would be on (i). We believe all these measures are necessary and urgent. But it is important not to encourage excessive hopes. The “problems of youth” are deeply rooted in the soil of a disturbed modern world.  To expect even the best Youth Service to solve these problems would be to regard it as some sort of hastily applied medicament.

8.     As we seek to show later, the Youth Service is deeply relevant to the needs and complexities of a modern society enjoying a rising standard of living. But its real achievements are bound to be sometimes difficult to measure statistically, and may only be seen clearly over a long period.  This is yet another reason for losing no time in making a proper start.

9.     the course of our work, we have considered written evidence from 69 bodies and have heard oral evidence from 20 of these (Appendix l). In addition, a large number of suggestions, sometimes in the form of memoranda, have been received. We have interviewed several individual people with a free-lance interest in or special knowledge of youth work, and we have consulted many others informally. We have received statistical information from Government departments and, in reply to a questionnaire of our own, from all 146 local education authorities in England and Wales. The Central Advisory Council for Education (England) has made available to us the results of a survey carried out in 1957[1]; a section of this survey dealt with the leisure-time interests of young people after leaving school and was based on questions put to a sample of those who had attended maintained schools. We have kept in touch with the Council and with two other bodies which were examining social problems affecting young people — the Ministry of Health’s Working Party on Social Workers in the Local Authority Health and Welfare Services, and the Industrial Training Council which was set up after the publication of the Carr Committee’s Report[2] in 1958. We have read reports on the Youth Service written by H.M. Inspectors of Schools, and have received several publications giving information about youth work abroad, particularly in Europe. We are grateful to all those who have helped us in these ways. Individual members of the Committee have visited youth groups at work in various parts of the country; several members were able, during visits abroad for other purposes, to learn something about youth work in the United States of America and four other countries.

10.  We have met on 30 days, of which two were in Cardiff and three constituted a residential week-end conference.

 

Chapter 1: The Youth Service Yesterday and Today

HISTORY

 

11.  In 1939 the Board of Education called the Youth Service into being with the issue of a single circular. This could not have happened but for what had gone before. The voluntary organisations had been labouring in the cause of youth, some of them for well over half-a-century. Some of the local education authorities had been trying to help and co-ordinate the voluntary work in their areas through juvenile organisations committees. And in the 1930s the State itself had tried to promote social and physical training and recreation. What the Board did at the start Of the war was to bring these three parties, State, education authority and voluntary organisation, into a working arrangement to which the term “Youth Service” has ever since been given.

12.  Circular 1486 the Board undertook “a direct responsibility for youth welfare”. The President had set up a National Youth Committee, and local education authorities were called on to set up youth committees of their own. Key phrases in the circular were: “close association of local education authorities and voluntary bodies in full partnership in a common enterprise” . . . “ordered scheme of local provision” . . . “indicate the lines on which a real advance can be made under more favourable conditions” . . . “new constructive outlets”. Later circulars made it clear that the Board regarded the Youth Service as a permanent part of education. So did the White Paper on Educational Reconstruction (1943), which gave a separate section to the Youth Service. The McNair Report (1944) encouraged the public to think of youth leadership as a profession, which ought to have proper conditions of training and service. The Youth Advisory Council (the successor to the National Youth Committee) produced two reports (1943 and 1945) which were full of hope for the future of the Service. Finally ‘the Education Act, 1944, not only made it a duty on authorities to do what they were already doing out of good-will, but offered in addition the county college, a mighty ally to the Youth Service.

13.  With the sense that the Youth Service was here to stay, authorities and voluntary bodies responded vigorously. In spite of natural early difficulties of adjustment a creditable measure of co-operation was achieved. The Youth Service was much written about, and youth workers of the time speak of the interest and enthusiasm of the public. Universities and university colleges offered training courses for professional leaders, and as the war ended the Service seemed full of promise.

14.  In 1945 the Ministry of Education made it plain that they did not intend for the present to put into effect the McNair recommendations about youth leaders. All the same the outlook still seemed bright enough to attract numbers of able men and women leaving the armed forces into the courses for professional leaders offered by universities and voluntary organisations. For two or three years longer the Service made some progress. It continued to be widely discussed, and four of the Ministry’s pamphlets published between 1945 and 1949 took it into serious account. Then the wind began to blow cold. With one economic crisis after another the Ministry could do no more than indicate that the Youth Service (with other forms of “learning for leisure”) must be held back to allow, first, for the drive for new school places and, later, for the development of technical education. The county college looked as far off as ever. The Jackson Committee (1949)[3] and the Fletcher Committee (1951)[4] produced reports on the training and conditions of service of professional youth leaders. Neither was put into effect. The flow of recruits shrank, the number of full-time leaders fell away and the university and other full-time courses closed down one by one until today only three survive[5] With the Ministry unable to give the signal for advance certain authorities lost heart. Public interest flagged too, and not surprisingly voluntary bodies felt the effect. It is easy to over-expose the picture and to fail to do justice to the good and valiant work which has been done since the war and is still being done. All the same the Youth Service has not been given the treatment it hoped for and thought it deserved, and has suffered in morale and public esteem in consequence.

 

PRESENT MACHINERY

 

15.  The Service that emerges from this history is not one homogeneous organisation but a partnership of a complicated kind. Of the three parties to the partnership the Minister has the particular duty of making plain the national policy within the general terms of which the Service is to work. This he can do through official circulars or public pronouncements. His decision on priorities is important: no less is the influence he can have on public opinion, on the community’s awareness of priorities and needs and its response to them.

16.  There is now no national council or committee through which the Ministry can discuss national policy for the Youth Service with the local authority associations and national voluntary organisations together. The Minister can, however, refer questions to the Central Advisory Councils for Education, and these can and have included matters touching on the Youth Service. Questions of common policy are discussed from time to time between the Ministry and representatives of the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations or individual organisations. The Ministry are represented by an observer on the Standing Conference, and certain of H.M. Inspectors keep in touch with the headquarters of organisations and may sit as assessors or observers on some of their committees.

17.  Direct help to the Service from the Ministry takes the form of grants offered under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939.[6] These grants are given in aid of the administrative and training work of national voluntary youth organisations, towards the expenses of training full-time leaders and towards the cost of premises and equipment for youth clubs provided by voluntary bodies.

18.  The Ministry also give indirect help through the grants offered under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937 to national voluntary organisations which provide services (especially coaching in physical pursuits) for young people as well as adults. Capital grants are offered under the same Act for local projects meant primarily to benefit adults; these include playing-fields, swimming-baths, community centres and village halls. Young people too can benefit from these forms of provision.

19.  If we turn to relations between the Ministry and local education authorities, it is clear that grant-aid now matters much less than it did, since the Youth Service has ceased to be aided by a percentage grant. Control of capital investment still remains; the Minister regulates the amount and type of building by requiring authorities to submit for his approval their major building programmes and certain minor projects. Nevertheless since April, 1959, the authorities have been freer than they were to undertake minor building works if they want to. The Ministry are represented locally by H.M. Inspector whose job is to keep in touch with authorities, local associations and the work in the field. Much of his most useful work is the advice and encouragement he gives in informal visits to clubs and other units. From time to time he reports to the Minister on the quality of the authority’s service or on particular groups.

20.  The local education authority are responsible for making the partnership work. They have to interpret national policy in terms of local needs; to set up the machinery through which the authority and voluntary bodies can work together; to help and to service local groups; and in certain conditions to provide clubs and centres themselves. Help and servicing may include grants of money, advice and information from the authority’s organisers, training courses, the provision of instructors, the loan of equipment, premises, playing-fields and camp sites, perhaps the organisation of a youth orchestra, a youth theatre, athletics centre, foreign visits and exchanges, and local festivals. The authorities’ duties are undertaken by a responsible committee, normally a youth committee. Many appoint further education organisers or Youth Service officers to carry out the field-work, committee-work and administration. We are very much alive to the value of the work of these officers and to the importance of their posts.

 

WHAT IT COSTS

 

21.  We are primarily concerned with value for public money, but we think that as a beginning the extent to which the Youth Service is financed by voluntary contributions should be recognised. We have tried to find out how much comes from these voluntary sources, but three factors prevented our getting a complete picture. First, the finances are extraordinarily complex: money comes from members’ subscriptions, trusts, donations and special money-raising efforts; these contributions are made at all levels, national, county and unit; and there is little uniformity of practice among the many kinds of organisation. Second, it is impossible for some organisations to separate their expenditure on young people aged 15—20 from that on adults and children. Third, units in the field are usually autonomous, and they keep their own accounts which are not readily available.

22.  The following examples from our evidence, however, show what proportion of income in the year 1957-58 is claimed by the bodies concerned to have come from these voluntary sources:

National Association of Boys’ Clubs
At headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .In local associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Affiliated clubs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		 Per cent.

75

88

78
Young Women’s Christian Association
At headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		  

88
National Association of Mixed Clubs and Girls’ Clubs
At headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		  

60
Young Men’s Christian Association
At headquarters (for young people under 21) . . . . . . .In local associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		 93

87

The evidence of the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations suggests that it is not at all unusual for its member organisations to have to raise from private and voluntary sources 90 per cent of their total yearly expenditure on headquarters administration, the provision of regional organisers and the training of leaders. What must, of course, be remembered about these several figures is that they are merely percentages of income or expenditure, which may in either case be quite inadequate to meet the needs of the organisations concerned.

23.  We now turn to expenditure from public funds. Total direct expenditure on the Youth Service by the Ministry of Education under the Social and Physic-al Training Grant Regulations, 1939 was £317,771 in 1957-58.[7] This represents only a small part of Ministry expenditure on all forms of education, which amounted to £355,400,OOO[8] in that year.

24.  When we came to examine the expenditure of local education authorities, under sections 41 and 53 Of the 1944 Education Act, the practice of including expenditure on adults and schoolchildren again made it difficult to assess accurately the amount spent on young people aged 15—20. We therefore sent a questionnaire to all authorities asking for details of expenditure in 1957—58 under the following headings:

(iii)  clubs and centres maintained by the authority;

(iv)  leaders employed by ‘the authority (full-time and part-time);

(v)   youth organisers and youth officers employed by the authority;

(vi)  grant aid to clubs and centres maintained by voluntary bodies;

(vii) grant aid to the county or local headquarters of voluntary organisations;

(viii)     Youth Service training and aid to students;

(ix)  other Youth Service expenditure

25.  Their replies[9] show how varied and uneven the provision is. For example, expenditure on training including aid to students was £54,189, or a little over 2 per cent of total Youth service expenditure; yet some authorities appeared to spend nothing on this item. About £760,000 was spent on centres which the authorities themselves maintained, and rather less than £500,000 on aid voluntary youth clubs and units; again variations between the authorities are great even when allowance is made for differences of population. It must be remembered, however, that some authorities also provide services other than these for the benefit of the 15-20 group in the form of advice from their organisers and help from instructors. Total expenditure on the Youth service by local education authorities in 1957-58 was about £2½ million. This represents almost exactly 50 per cent of the expenditure shown under sections 41 and 53 of the Act for recreation generally.[10]

26.  Thus in 1957-58 total direct expenditure on the Youth Service by Ministry and authorities combined was a little over 2¾ million. Of every pound they spent on education about 1d. went on the Youth Service.

27.  We have examined the actual expenditure over the 12 years up to and including 1957-58 and we have also taken into account the fall in purchasing power of the pound.[11] In terms of real money, direct expenditure by the Ministry on the Youth Service has fallen by about a quarter over these years. We cannot easily calculate the extent to which the Youth Service expenditure of local education authorities has changed in these years, because of the imponderables mentioned above; but their total expenditure on recreation and social and physical training for adults, young people and school children appears to have increased substantially over the period: in terms of real money, by almost a half.

 

PRESENT AIMS

 

28.  In Circular 1516 of 27th June, 1940, the Board of Education gave “some guidance on the general aim and purpose of the work”, much of which is still relevant today. The general aim was to be found in the “social and physical training” which could be given through both youth organisations and schools. The common task was to bring young people into a normal relationship with their fellows and to develop bodily fitness. It was recognised that these needs did not cease when young people left school, but that for most children, unfortunately, opportunities failed just at the stage where they were most wanted. The over-riding purpose was seen to be the “building of character”, and youth welfare was to take its recognised place in education. Young people were to be given a happy and healthy social life in association with their fellows, perhaps sharing in some common project, accepting and exercising the authority which a free relationship involved. In other words, much of the training was regarded as indirect, the result of these associations. This was a stirring document, full of challenge and encouragement.

29.  The Ministry of Education made it clear in Pamphlet No (1945)[12] that the Youth Service was intended not merely to cover the provision of recreational facilities, but to provide for the training of young people (without compulsion) in “self-government and citizenship”, and to be a means of continued education in the widest sense of the term.

30.  Following the Education Act of 1944, the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations issued a statement[13] in which they affirmed that the aim of education in their kind of organisation was not only “good citizenship” but also, “to live the good life” (and to some of them this meant Christian life in a Christian church).

31.  All this indicates that the Youth Service has been seen, by at least some of those concerned, as something much more challenging than a rescue service and its units as much more than “streets with a roof”. Its purpose has been to help young people to make the best of themselves and act responsibly. This being so, we have sought to find out how the Service is living up to its aims and what are its present strengths and weaknesses.

 

ASSESSMENT OF THE YOUTH SERVICE

 

32.  We have reviewed briefly the history of the Youth Service, the machinery by which it is operated, its cost and its present aims. We come now to the more difficult task of reviewing its performance in recent years and assessing its ability to sustain the burden we foresee for it.

33.  First or all, the Youth Service has been kept in being throughout a difficult time, when the calls on the national resources have been very great. While on other fronts substantial advances have made, in this sector the line has at least been held. Without this holding operation, there would be no Youth Service to discuss. The headquarters of the main voluntary organisations have had enough help to make limited development possible in the field; and locally, while few areas have able to establish a Service such as the early circulars envisaged, most have able to ensure a small provision of clubs centres to meet the growing or youth. Local education authorities as a whole have increased their expenditure on the Service, and their youth officers or organisers have generally kept them aware of the most urgent needs. Some have notable achievements to point to; others have planned a groundwork on which it will be easy to build when the opportunity is provided. Interesting experiments have been tried, both by authorities and voluntary bodies.  Overall, thanks to public funds, private generosity, and the timely help of trusts, and thanks even more to the resource and devotion or a great number of voluntary workers and a small band of paid (but often underpaid) ones, provision of some sort has been made for the needs of one in three of the young people between 15 and 21.

34.  We have mentioned voluntary workers, and it is appropriate here to refer to the great importance of the voluntary principle in the Service. Voluntary attendance and voluntary help seem to us to be its chief strengths. Voluntary attendance is important because it introduces adult freedom and choice. Voluntary help is no less important. There are great numbers of people who are willing to give up their time to meet and talk with young people, and to help with the activities of youth groups, clubs and centres. The motives which have urged them to take up work in the Service are varied, but we are struck by the real concern for young people and the desire to help them at whatever cost which characterises most of these voluntary workers. It is vital for young people to understand that many of the older generation are genuinely anxious to make friends and to share their interests

35.  So much for the strengths of the Youth Service as it is at present. We have made equally aware of its limitations and weaknesses; in policy, in machinery, and in performance. Since many of the weaknesses we have noted in the field stem from the prolonged financial stringency and consequent lack of drive, we must look first at the policy and the machinery for implementing it

36.  We have referred to the importance of the Minister’s role in forming the national policy and guiding the development of the Youth Service.  This part of his responsibilities has for some time past had a low precedence: during the ten years up to the end of 1958 the Ministry have not issued a single circular devoted solely to the Youth Service.  During the same period there have been ten circulars which have had some bearing on it; all were concerned with education expenditure and seven of them imposed restrictions (the remaining three offering slight relaxation of previous restrictions).  It is hardly surprising that this lack of encouragement has checked the momentum with which the Service was launched and has betrayed the high hopes of those who believe in it.

37.  The Select Committee, in their Report of July, 1957[14], referred to this discouraging effect and put it down to lack of interest on the part of the Ministry of Education in the present state of the Service and to apathy about its future.  The Minister’s observations on the Select Committee Report[15] point out that successive Governments have found it necessary to restrict the moneys they made available for the Youth Service, and “so long as this continues to be the case, it would be disingenuous if the Minister were to make statements purporting to encourage the adoption of policies either by local education authorities or by voluntary bodies which could not in fact be implemented without increased expenditure from public funds.”

38.  It is not necessary for us to question decisions about the priorities in national expenditure which have been taken by each successive Government since the war; but we must point to the consequences as they have affected the Youth Service. First, the Minister has been unable to exercise effectively his function of guiding local education authorities in the development of policy and of ensuring the performance of their duties under the 1944 Act, since he has been unable to release the funds that would be necessary to implement the Act’s requirements. Second, the machinery for the Ministry’s direct grant aid, to which we have referred above, has never been developed: the system is a patchwork and there are obvious inconsistencies which ought to go. In fact recent grants have in some cases been barely enough to allow the organisations to carry out their basic work, and not enough to free them from chronic anxiety.

39.  In view of these discouragements it is not surprising that when we come to examine the contribution of the next partner in the Youth Service, the local education authorities, we find a picture of somewhat haphazard development.  Of course, since authorities have to frame policies to fit local needs, there are bound to be differences of system or approach as between one area and another: but where these differences are ones of efficiency they may reflect the apathy of some authorities or their loss of confidence in the Service. Some important authorities have no youth committee and no youth officer. Even authorities that value the Service show surprising variations in the way they go about things. These variations are generally the result of the differing views that authorities take or their relations with voluntary bodies and the extent to which the organisations should be brought into consultation. At one extreme are those that spend most of their money on clubs and centres of their own, at the other those that leave provision wholly to the voluntary bodies with the help of comparatively generous grants. The result of all this is that there is no accepted minimum of services which voluntary bodies of standing can expect from every authority as a matter of course.

40.  Finally, we must look at the limitations of the Youth Service in the field, whether its work is being done by local authorities or voluntary bodies.  In the first place, we must mention one general failing. We have for variety of method and a willingness to try new things, to adapt tried methods of work to the changing needs of young people, and to seek out groups in need of help. There is a great variety of organisations working in the service of youth: apart from the national voluntary bodies there are numerous clubs and activities by the Churches, local education authorities and groups. There is, of course, some variety of method, but there is less willingness than we should have hoped to break new ground.  The type of boy or girl aimed at tends to be the same. This limitation may not be unrelated to some other weaknesses in the present-day Youth Service to which we must refer.

41.  Lack of finance is at the root of several shortcomings we have noted: clubs that frequently have to function in dingy, drab premises; lack of equipment for the job; insufficient provision for outdoor recreation; and a failure to measure up to the needs of new towns and housing estates, summed up in the remark of the boy who described one of these estates as ‘a graveyard with lights’.

42.  Leadership within the Youth Service has also suffered from shortage of money and lack of encouragement. Leaders feel unsupported and unappreciated: they look for some sign that their work is nationally recognised as important, but find it neither in official expressions of policy nor in the rewards of a salary scale for those who are full-time which would put the work on a level with cognate professions. They seem to themselves to be in danger of becoming cut off from the march of social and educational advance. And there is a considerable volume of evidence that full-time posts fail to attract good applicants

43.  We believe that another factor enters here: that is the failure to provide a satisfactory structure for a professional service which of its nature is episodic rather than a life-time career; recruitment is still haphazard, salaries and conditions of service have never been agreed, and professional training is producing only a trickle of full-time leaders.

44.  The partnership, envisaged in the early circulars, between Ministry, local education authorities and voluntary organisations, has not always stood up to the stress of circumstances. We have referred to the substantial variations that exist between the practice of local education authorities, their interpretation of their and responsibilities, and their relations with voluntary bodies.  Lack of sympathy for youth work in some areas — fortunately a minority — has not always prevented progressive work being done in them, but the lack of consistency in policy over the country as a whole, together with the uncertainty about the scale of future grants, has undermined the confidence on which any partnership on a national scale should have been founded. As between local authorities and voluntary bodies there has been little co-ordination of effort, and consequently a temptation to create areas of influence rather than to seek common ground.

45.       A particular in the Youth Service, for which all our witnesses have shown concern, is its failure to reach so many of the young people today. The figure often quoted was that the Service was attracting only one in three, and we found confirmation of this, first, in the replies of local education authorities to our questionnaire and, secondly, in the survey out by the Central Office of Information.

 

CHAPTER 2: Young People Today Part I: THE CHANGING SCENE

 

46.  All times are times of change, but some change more quickly than others.  Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that in some periods the sense of change is particularly strong.  Today is such a period.  Our terms of reference require us to review the Youth Service “in the light of changing social industrial conditions and of current trends in other branches of the education service”.  We think it useful to make a distinction here.  We therefore look first at those changes which are comparatively objective, and more immediate in their probable effects.  We consider secondly those less tangible elements which contribute particularly to the sense of change itself.

 

THE BULGE

 

47.  For every five young people between the ages of 15 and 20 today there will be, in 1964, six young people.  This increase will not be spread evenly across the country as a whole; but all areas and each kind of area will show some increase.  In some new towns we expect it to be as much as five-fold.  Between 1964 and 1970 the total number will decline gradually, but it will still remain substantially higher than today’s total. From 1970 there is likely once again to be a gradual increase. In sum, we have to plan for a consistently larger number of adolescents than we have been used to thinking of.[16]

48.  Emergency measures were required and were taken to meet the impact of this ‘bulge’ on the schools. Similar measures are now being taken to meet the impact on technical colleges and universities of those from the ‘bulge’ generation who become students there. No comparable measures have so far taken to prepare the Youth Service for the needs of this increased population. Unless these measures are taken urgently the ‘bulge’ generations will leave school only to find a Youth Service inadequate to cope even with its earlier responsibilities.

 

THE ENDING OF NATIONAL SERVICE

 

49.  During the past few years national service has kept roughly 200,000 young men between the ages of 18 and 20 out of civilian life. Its gradual abandonment during the next two or three years will cause this number of young men to remain available for civilian employment and leisure pursuits.

50.  It has more than once been put to us strongly that national service was of great benefit to young men in developing not only physical abilities, but also self-reliance, and the capacity to work in a group and to accept organised discipline for a common purpose. Other witnesses disputed these claims and suggested rather that national service broke some important ties (of home, neighbourhood and work) at a crucial period in young men’s lives; and that it was dangerously boring to many young men or introduced them to some regrettable activities (excessive drinking, sexual promiscuity) without the support of a known environment. We have not felt it our duty as a committee to pursue this dispute to the point at which we could state a common conclusion. We give our attention therefore directly to the results of the ending of national service, to the retention by civilian society approximately 200,000 more young men between the ages of 18 and 20.

51.  Three points emerge clearly. First, and in so far as it is true that national service did provide these young men with challenge and adventure suitable to their age and needs, the Youth Service must accept some of the responsibility for providing, in relevant civilian terms, this kind of opportunity.

52.  Second, there should be among these older boys many who, if properly prompted, might play an important part in the running of existing organisations and of those self-programming groups.

53.  Third, the freeing of this considerable number of young men will clearly strain the existing Youth Service unless changes are made within it. This group, together with that caused by the arrival of the ‘bulge’, will make the Youth Service responsible for a million more young people in 1964 than it had to cater for in 1958. The absolute increase on the 1958 figures will have dropped to about 770,000 in 1973, but thereafter the number seems likely to rise again. In 1960 the number of young aged 15-20 inclusive will be over 3½ million. Plainly, this suggests at least a prima facie case for marked expansion in all branches of the Service, in leaders (full- and part-time, paid and voluntary), in organisers, in training schemes, in premises, in outdoor facilities and in equipment.

 

PHYSIQUE

 

54.  Today’s adolescents are taller and heavier than those of previous generations, and they mature earlier. Improved food and hygiene, better social conditions, physical training and medical treatment have ensured that most of them enjoyed better health in childhood than their predecessors. It has been estimated that the average gain per decade in this century in pre-adolescence is just over ½ inch in height and 1 lb. in weight, and that there is an increase to roughly ¾ inch and 3 lbs. during adolescence.[17] Individual variations for the onset of puberty can be considerable; but it appears certain that puberty is occurring earlier, and that the large majority of young people now reach adolescence, as determined by physical changes, before the age of 15.[18]

55.  As we have suggested, today’s adolescents have usually been introduced to a greater range of activities and challenges in their physical education whilst at school than have earlier generations. More than one witness has impressed on us his conviction that young workers have considerable surplus energy which their work, and most of the more easily available facilities for leisure, do not always satisfy. Here is one plain and promising opportunity for the Youth Service. There has never been such scope to promote and encourage healthy physical recreation, both that of an organised kind and that which is founded in individual initiatives.

56.  The changes we have outlined clearly have more difficult implications for school life, for further education and for the Youth Service. For the considerable emotional developments inseparable from puberty will now often be taking place in contexts earlier than those with which they have been habitually associated, e.g. during the last year or two at secondary modern school. The lesson for the Youth Service is also easy to state but difficult to practise. Obviously, experience of comradeship within the right kind of youth club may be of very great value at such a time. But if more youth clubs are to be of the right kind more youth workers will need to be aware of the psychological results of these changes, and of their implications for their own pastoral care.

 

CHANGING PATTERN OF WOMEN’S LIVES

57.  The magnitude of the changes taking place in women’s lives makes hesitate to do more than draw attention to three points which we feel relevant to the type of provision needed for the adolescent girl. In the first place, the traditional balance of woman’s life is being altered by earlier marriage, by the shorter span of years now occupied in child bearing, and by the growth of employment outside the home after marriage. The shortening of the period between school and marriage is particularly relevant because it leaves less time for the girl to acquire social maturity and technical competence at her job as home-maker.  Secondly, girls from homes where manual work has been the tradition are tending to move, and move more rapidly than their brothers, into non-manual work in a social setting other than that familiar to their circle. The potential strains in this are obvious. And this to our third point.  These alterations and modifications to long-established patterns would suggest that girls no less than boys need further education after leaving school. In fact they get considerably less. The Youth Service, with the opportunities it offers for informal education, could make good some of these deficiencies, but fewer girls than boys are members of youth organisations, and much more thought will need to be given to ways of attracting them and studies made of their specific needs.

 

DELINQUENCY

 

58.  During the past decade there have been increases, and in some cases marked increases, in the number and proportion of young found guilty of indictable offences.  The facts of delinquency are on record, but we think it useful to give a brief summary at this point.

59.  A recent report on “Trends in Teenage Delinquency”[19] attempts to show for a ten-year period (1946-1956), the trend for various broad types of offences, the figures of indictable Offences having been supplemented by the addition to them of related and often complementary non-indictable offences known to the police. They are striking figures. The incidence of convictions of youths aged 17—20 for drink offences showed a five-fold increase in these ten years; the incidence for violence roughly trebled, and for both sexual offences and disorderly conduct, it doubled. The pattern for boys aged 14—16 was different. In the two groups of offences, theft and disorder, where the incidence of convictions per 10,000 boys was heaviest, there was a tendency for improvement in the last five years of the period; but in the personal field of drink, violence and sexual offences there was deterioration as with the 17—20 age group.

60.  For girls in the 17—20 age group. there was no apparent deterioration in any sector during the first five years. In 1951, however, there was a sharp increase in the incidence of convictions in the drink, disorder, and sexual groups of offences; and in 1955—56 there was another increase. For girls aged 14—16, there was some increase in the incidence of convictions for drink offences; but the general levels for all offences except theft were substantially lower in this age group than in the 17—20 group of girls.

61.   The incidence of suicide and attempted suicide more than doubled in this period for young people aged 17—20 and, as if to suggest that the crimes reflected personal tensions rather than social wants, the figures did not reveal any substantial rate of change in such offences as theft

62.  An increase in offences reported or in convictions may on the one hand be due to a change of attitude, on the part of the police, magistrates and public, and on the other to an increase in the actual number of offences.  Nevertheless on balance these trends must have some substance

63.  The tables in Appendix 9, derived from the annual reports on criminal statistics published by the Home Office, show the rates in various age groups of indictable offences in the years 1938 and 1946—1958. It will be seen that these rates have shown serious increases for adolescent groups. The present upward surge (1958) in offences of youths aged 17—20 looks particularly grave. And the 14—16 age group has reached a rate of more than 2,000 offences per 100,000 Of the population, which is higher than the rate for the previous peak year. 1951. [20]

64.  Is it possible to associate this crime wave among young people with disturbed social conditions? An important paper read to the British Association in 1958 by Mr. Leslie T. Wilkins of the Home Office Research Unit[21] succeeds in the tentative definition of two more than usually delinquent generations. The first crime-prone group were those born in the years 1926—1928: the second, those born in the seven years period 1935—36
to 1942—43. The children of both groups reached the age of four to six during periods of widespread social disturbance: for the first it was the great depression, with its consequent unemployment, which began in 1929 and mounted in violence until 1934, and for the second, of course. it was the second world war. It would seem that personal disturbance leading eventually to delinquency might be associated with the shocks of the last pre-school year or the first school year, years in which children first develop social sense. Yet as Mr. Wilkins shows, this interesting finding is not sufficient explanation of the current crime-wave in males between 17 and 21. The age group which passed through their third to sixth year during the war is expected to be more crime-prone than other age groups of boys and girls. But in fact the observed crime rate has turned out to be far in excess of expectation. In other words the present phenomenon cannot be dismissed as “only to be expected in view of their childhood experiences”.

65.  In one sense, therefore, we think we can speak of a new climate of crime and delinquency. We have been made intensely aware of this and we accept the significant public warnings of judges and police chiefs. It is easy of course to exaggerate the incidence of delinquency. Even after all the increases, it involves in any one year only about 2 per cent of boys aged 14 and under 21 and only 0.2 per cent of girls of the same age group. On the other hand, of the total number of persons found guilty of indictable offences in 1957, roughly one half were under 21, and 30 per cent were aged 14—20 inclusive. Therefore whether the figures are large or small in relation to the total population, the crime problem is very much a youth problem, a problem of that age group with which the Youth Service is particularly concerned and towards which the public rightly expects it to make some contribution

66.  The present rise of crime among the young is against expectation in another sense. Sociologists have always traced a strong correlation between poverty and crime. The poorest and most socially deprived elements of a population were always those who had most to gain and least to lose from active crime. Reformers confidently expected that improvements in social conditions would progressively reduce the incidence of every sort of crime. True this was a theory which tended to overlook upper class crime and to discount personal reasons for crime, but by and large everyone expected it to work out more or less accurately and it is grievous that hopes have been so much disappointed. If we can no longer look to the old economic causes for crime we must search for new ones, or for personal or social ones which override the declining economic factors.

67.  Many explanations have been advanced—the second world war. The hydrogen bomb, the welfare state, the limitations of opportunity in a boring society, the growth of a sense of violence in a century infamous for violence of every kind. We do not feel that we can point with any certainty to any one particular cause or combination of causes. Nothing in the evidence we have received directly associates the crime wave among the young with any special new social or national condition. It does seem true, however, that society does not know how to ask the of the young, that as a whole it is not much more concerned with them than to ask them to earn and consume. It is necessary no doubt to do both, but man’s deepest needs are not satisfied by a mechanical participation in an economic process.

68.  We do not think it is easy or wise to speak glibly of a delinquent younger generation and a law-abiding older generation. This is only half the story. What, to a person of forty or fifty, may show itself as a general malaise, a sense of emptiness, a quiet rejection of social responsibilities or a cautiously controlled cynicism may show itself in an adolescent as an act of wanton violence, a bout of histrionic drunkenness or a grasping at promiscuous sexual experience. There does not seem to be at the heart of society a courageous and exciting struggle for a particular moral and spiritual life — only a passive, neutral commitment to things as they are. One cannot, in fact, indict the young for the growth of delinquency without also indicting the older generations for apathy and indifference to the deeper things of the heart

69.  It is natural to that the Youth Service should be able to do something about this state of affairs. It certainly must try, but it cannot be expected to deal with causes of delinquency which may born long before teenage, or with the ethos of the whole society. It can only be effective indeed, and then perhaps to a limited degree, if it carries society with it in its difficult task. Before we speak of what it might do, it is necessary to say that the effect of the crime increase is not to turn every teenager into a delinquent but to create an atmosphere in which it is increasingly difficult for social and youth workers to succeed and in which psychological difficulties are placed between even the well-meaning young and the agencies which would like to co-operate with them.  The climate is particularly turbulent with the sense of increasing violence and destructiveness — not always indictable — among sections of the young. This acts disastrously in several ways. First, it digs a gulf between the young generally and the law-abiding older sections of the community, which it almost impossible to bridge. Misunderstandings grow. Secondly, it deeply affects the young who would themselves never become violent. They are unsettled by the success of the lawless in society. This becomes the more true the more society fails to bring offenders to trial. Every teenager in a congested area knows of offences committed in the neighbourhood and not discovered. He hears them boasted about in public places. He knows that a life or crime, rarely discovered, is possible, and this shakes his faith in the order and dignity of the society in which he lives. The whole society comes to look hypocritical. Thirdly, crimes of violence (particularly if undiscovered) terrorise the other young. In one sense they are meant to. Bragging lawless teenagers hope that their contemporaries will accept them as stronger than society and above its laws. This must seem to be true when a convicted youth re-appears in his old haunts and ready for his old pursuits, apparently unintimidated by his experience in court, and on occasions even enjoying enhanced status within his group. Fourthly, crimes of violence create an atmosphere in which older people are unwilling to intervene to stop other crimes because they fear acts of violence against themselves. Everyone who has moved among teenagers in certain inner suburbs of big cities has had to face this moral dilemma at some time or another. The retreat from responsibility on the part of the general population for fear of reprisals leaves the police isolated in their tasks and hurt by lack of public support. It has a deadly effect on the young who wish to law-abiding, and who read from this the growth of social pressure to tolerate or at least not to oppose the tough in any risky way. They draw their own conclusions and play safe themselves.

70.  What has to be asked for in the face of this moral withdrawal is a clear and strong indication from the whole of society of its social condemnation of rising violence and destructiveness, and of personal crimes, among the young. This is a necessary preliminary to social therapies. Only if society knows what to condemn can it know what to heal. It ought never to remove by anything it does the sense of personal responsibility for their acts from the young.

71.  On the positive side, given such a new national feeling, the Youth Service can do much to make the appeal of the good society stronger than the dynamic of wickedness. Reformed and enlarged and supported in the manner in which we sketch it in succeeding chapters, it should be far more capable of granting new and adventurous opportunities to the young than are at present possible and should engage the energies of many more young people in the acquisition of personal skills, or the delights of good social life, and in forms of service to the community. As it grows it will draw, not only more of the good and law-abiding, but also more of the critical and restless and those who are natural but reckless leaders of their age groups. It will not do so by a form of indoctrination — we feel that the Youth Service we sketch rules that out — but by the provision of new freedoms for the next generation to come to maturity, and so to social responsibility in its own way. But, we repeat, a socially unsupported or spiritually isolated Youth Service could not succeed.

 

HOUSING

 

72.  Since 1945 nearly 3 million houses and flats have been built in England and Wales. This progress in re-housing, together with the school building programme, and the improved working conditions and commercial facilities for leisure, have accustomed many teenagers in the present generation to new and better standards of physical provision which have implications for the Youth Service which we consider in Chapter 5. It must be remembered, however, that there is a darker side to the picture which also has its lesson to teach

73.  The bricks and mortar of the homes of a great many people were laid to meet the needs of a different age, which had to accept lower standards of sanitation and physical provision. It is estimated that about one-third of the national housing stock is over seventy-five years old, and much of it has been intensively used by many families who sometimes share such basic equipment as water closets. Whilst the number of slum dwellings is happily declining it is obvious that the development of satisfactory relationships in many families is still hampered by inadequate housing provision. The younger members of such families are Often not encouraged or inclined to bring their friends into the home, and by tradition their meeting places have been the street corners or the local cafés and, for some, the youth clubs

74.  It is also important to recognise that in many industrial towns the areas with sub-standard housing are undergoing fundamental social changes that have sometimes led to serious disturbances among some of the young people. New and strange faces appear on the doorsteps and congregate in the streets as workers from many lands find a job and a home in Britain. The integration of these families brings problems, and has sometimes created a sense of insecurity and a fear among the established community that housing standards will deteriorate further. Housing conditions do not completely explain the violence shown by some youths in these areas, and the prevalence of lawless gangs is not a new social phenomenon of the slums.  However these racial outbursts present a new problem and seem paradoxical in this age when young people of all races and nationalities seem less different and share common interests such as jazz and football and often a common culture.

75.  For the young people enjoying the first-class housing, schools and shops of the new towns, the new housing estates and blocks of flats, the problem is different but no less challenging. Homes are more attractive but beyond, nearly all are strangers. The street corners are quiet and uninviting, with their searching sodium lamps, and their lack of familiar lights and smells. It is all houses or flats, perhaps occasionally a pub or a church, but rarely a coffee bar or a place provided for young people to meet. The present generation of teenagers, the first in these towns and areas, is cut then from the traditional forms of face-to-face social education in the long established neighbourhoods

76.  It is hardly surprising that many young people get out of these areas where boredom reigns, as quickly and as often as they can. They make for the nearest established town or simply the nearest main road where they can race up and down on their motorbikes. This is a problem for the Youth Service to which we revert later.

 

EDUCATION

 

77.  The Central Advisory Council for Education (England) was asked in March, 1956, “to consider, in relation to the changing social and industrial needs of our society, and the needs of its individual citizens, the education of boys and girls between 15 and 18 and in particular to consider the balance at various levels of general and specialised studies between these ages and to examine the inter-relationship of the various stages of education”. Although at the time of submitting our Report their findings have not been made public, we know that the Council will be giving a very full account of the educational needs of boys and girls aged 15—18. For this reason we have not tried to make a complete analysis of educational changes since the war but have confined ourselves to a few which are of direct relevance to the Youth Service. All that we say about education in this section is overshadowed by the unanswered questions about the raising of the school leaving age and the establishment of county colleges. We consider in Chapter 9 the need for a Youth Service when county colleges come into being and the relation between these two forms of educational provision for young people.

78.  The new system of secondary education for all, brought into being by the Education Act of 1944, is still not fully developed; but there has recently been a much keener sense of its potential. Not only has the raising of the school leaving age to 15 become acceptable, but in many areas parents and their children are demanding more schooling. The Ministry’s Annual Reports show the substantial increase in the number of pupils staying on at school beyond 15, an increase which is more than proportionate to the size of the relevant age group. There has also been a steady growth, both absolutely and proportionately. in the number of 17-year-old pupils in grant-aided and recognised schools in England and Wales.  It seems likely that, this trend in the demand for extended education will continue, even while the period of compulsory school attendance ends at 15.[22]

79.  In December, 1958, the Government announced a five-year programme of educational advance in the secondary field beginning in 1960 and costing £300 million.[23]  The aim is to provide opportunities for the individual boy or girl to go as far as his keenness and ability will take him. The programme will allow for the building of new schools still needed to meet local increases in the number of pupils, for the remodelling of serviceable old buildings, for the reorganisation of the remaining all-age schools and for the general improvement of secondary provision

80.  Against these gains must be set the continuing difficulties under which many secondary schools are labouring. They are now facing their own problems of the “bulge”, just as workers in the Youth Service will have to meet theirs in the early ‘sixties. Many classes are overlarge; in certain subjects there is a scarcity of specialist teachers; certain areas find it hard to attract and hold sufficient teachers of all kinds. The lengthening of the normal course of training of teachers from two years to three in 1960, however beneficial in the long run, will prolong for a period the present strain on the staffs of schools.

81.  Once the strain is eased, the effects of the strengthening of the secondary system should make themselves felt. Even as things are, the material conditions for art and crafts, music and physical recreation are continually improving. Even now schools of all kinds are showing a keener concern for social education. Clubs and societies, foreign travel and social service are increasingly regarded as a normal part of school life in which the pupils are encouraged to undertake a fuller responsibility. A very recent Ministry circular[24] suggests that club rooms, common rooms and quiet rooms can be provided even in old school buildings. The Youth Service must expect young people in future to be more critical of its standards and more exacting in their demands; and it must take account of the schools’ stronger sense of social purpose and of what is being done to encourage independence and responsibility in the adolescent.

82.  There are interesting developments in other branches of education. The growing strength of the youth employment service over the last ten years has meant for many young people an easier passage from school to work and a greater stability and confidence after they have taken up employment. Moreover the growth of extended courses in secondary schools is leading to a stronger link between schools and technical education. The expansion of technical education is dramatic indeed. In 1956 the Government published a White Paper[25] to announce an £85 million programme for the expansion and improvement of technical education over a period of five years, and this is to be followed by a supplementary programme for a further three years. Two features in the development of technical education are of particular interest to the Youth Service

83.  The first is the increase in the number of young people released by their employers for part-time courses during the day. The White paper envisaged that the number of 355,000 young people so released during 1954—55 would be doubled by 1962. The Ministry’s 1958 Annual Report shows that good progress has been made so far, but that the rate of increase has slowed down. It is also plain that in day-release courses the number of girls is much smaller than the number of boys and that the number of semi-skilled young workers is much smaller than the number of those training to be technicians or craftsmen. Even as it is, the growth of part-time release means that fewer young people are attending vocational classes in evening institutes and that more young people have more evening leisure than they had. It is also providing useful experience for those who will have to plan the county colleges of the future; the pity is that experience of part-time release for girls and for the semi-skilled is still so slight

84.  Secondly, the development of a liberal element in technical education bas been given direct encouragement by the Ministry. In Circular 323, issued in May, 1957, the Minister made it clear that the need for this development was already widely recognised, and he therefore encouraged further discussion and experiment. “Only so will students develop a broad outlook and a sense of spiritual and human values as well as technical accomplishment.” Close contact was encouraged between student activities and the industrial clubs and societies with which students might be associated. Thus the trend is towards a broadening of treatment and content and, as in secondary education, towards a richer social and corporate life, giving students the opportunity to share in a wide range of activities and to be responsible for organising them. In this climate it is possible that some of the local colleges of further education will begin to develop those relations with the Youth Service which will be expected of the county colleges of the future

85.  To summarise: both secondary and technical education are in process of being widely expanded and improved; opportunities are increasing for those boys and girls who do not go to grammar schools; many schools and colleges of further education are broadening their concepts of study; social education and physical recreation are receiving more attention. As we point out at greater length in Chapter 3, there is a striking contrast between what is provided for those young people – the minority – who continue their formal education, full-time or part-time, and what is available for the remainder who have only an impoverished Youth Service to turn to.

 

SOCIAL SECURITY

86.  Since we have mentioned changes in the fields of education and housing, we cannot ignore developments in social security and welfare which have occurred during the last generation.

87.  This period has witnessed the introduction of the National Health Service, the raising in real value of a comprehensive collection of social benefits together with the introduction of new benefits, and the promotion of many new welfare services by statutory, industrial and voluntary organisations. This is relevant to our Report in so far as it has helped to establish a climate of security which was largely absent at the beginning of the period. In particular, the provision of family allowances may be a factor in the earlier marriage and the raising of a family; this, in turn, has social consequences which we mention elsewhere.

88.  It is not possible for us to assess the impact on youth which social security has made. There are undoubtedly those who hold that it has led to a less responsible citizen: this perhaps springs from an insufficient realisation that it is made and paid for by nearly every member of the community. On the other hand, it can be argued that with the banishment of fear and want, a better citizen will evolve. It is sufficient that we should draw attention to this considerable change, which has taken place since the Youth Service was introduced, as it is part of the background of young people today.

 

MONEY TO SPEND

 

89.  The widely-held assumption that most young people today have much more money to spend than pre-war generations is well-founded. In this section we discuss how much they have to spend and what they spend it on; and we suggest the relevance of this new spending power to the Youth Service.

90.  In 1938, according to a Ministry of Labour survey, boys between 15 and 20 who were at work earned an average of 26s. 0d. and girls of 24s. 0d. a week. Most of this money seems usually to have been handed to parents, leaving only a few shillings weekly for discretionary spending. Before the war, then, it is roughly true to say that adults had a monopoly of spending power; most adolescents in work were economically dependent. By comparison, in mid-1958 youths between the same ages and in work earned an average of £5 12s. 0d. and girls of £5 6s. Od. a week. The majority of young people today appear to give their parents between £l and £3 a week if they are living at home.[26] According to Mr. Mark Abrams,[27] on the average about £3 a week is left to each for discretionary spending.

91.  This trend in earnings is not necessarily a continuing one. To some extent it has been caused by the shortage of young entrants to employment during a period of industrial expansion, a shortage which will probably disappear as the “bulge” leaves the schools.  Indeed, since a larger number of entrants to industry will have to acquire skills, the upward trend is not likely to continue in the immediate future. There might even be a slight downward trend for a time. There are, of course, wide individual variations between those high earnings of some young people which tend to be publicised, and the lower earnings of quite substantial numbers, particularly those who are acquiring skills, and grammar-school pupils who earn only pin-money, if they earn at all

92.  Again, there are regional and occupational differences in the way this increased money is handled, and so in its impact. We have been told of some working-class areas of the North, centred on a few long-established industries, in which the tradition that teenagers hand their wage-packet to their parents and receive pocket money in return still largely holds. The pocket money is undoubtedly greater than before the war, but the formalities of this method of receiving it probably act as a brake on the impact of unusually high wages. But in spite of these and many other exceptions, and after allowing for the fall in the value of money, the real earnings of teenagers of both sexes have increased on an average by about one half since before the war (which is double the rate for adults), and their real discretionary spending seems to be roughly twice what it was before the war

93.  How is this money spent? Again according to Mr. Abrams, those at work spend between one-sixth and one-third of their spare money on clothing and footwear (there are differences as between the sexes); another quarter is spent on drinks (soft and alcoholic), snacks, cigarettes and tobacco sweets and chocolate; and a good part of the remainder is spent on gramophone records and record players, bicycles and motor cycles, cinema, dancing and other entertainments, romantic magazines and paperback novelettes.

94.  It will be seen that these figures cover a narrow range of goods and services; not a great many different ways of spending so much money are chosen. Much of the spending is clearly—and naturally—on goods designed to impress other teenagers (e.g., dressing-up) or on gregarious pursuits (e.g. coffee-bar snacks). This is spending which is, to an unusually high degree, charged with an emotional content – it helps to provide an identity or to give status or to assist in the sense of belonging to a group of contemporaries.

95.  Here is a new market for several industries, and in some of them a high proportion of total sales is made to young people: in bicycles and motor cycles, in cinema and other entertainments, in records and record players, roughly 25 per cent of the total ; in confectionery and soft drinks, in women’s clothing and in cosmetics, between 15 per cent and 25 per cent of the total.

96.  A new market means new persuasions. Today as never before much is addressed specifically to teenagers and to teenagers as teenagers (as members of a named and defined group). They acquire therefore a sense of their own economic importance and independence. The shortage of manpower since the war, and the relatively greater shortage of young people caused by a higher school leaving age and the calls of military service, have made many employers chary about employing their teenagers for menial jobs and anxious to see them given productive work. The sense of being keenly sought after in employment is perhaps more important than any change in the actual nature of the work done, and no doubt reinforces the teenagers’ feeling of importance and independence.

97.  Further, the post-war improvement in the standards of living among all age groups, and especially in the working classes, has meant that more money is generally available for uncommitted spending. Greatly increased attention is given, particularly through advertising, to the pleasures of this kind of spending. This atmosphere, part of the wider setting of their society, must affect teenagers also.

98.  Before the war the imaginative horizons of many young people were extremely limited. In part this had an economic cause; many goods and many activities were simply beyond their pockets. Today’s increasedspending power may obviously give enormous advantages, in making more choices available and giving more opportunities of more varied kinds. Yet we have already noted the narrowness in the choices actually made by most young people, and it is plain that some considerable forces help to reinforce this narrowness. It is well known that the economics of mass production cause manufacturers to advertise heavily with the intention of concentrating demand into a few channels. This characteristic can also be seen in goods produced for teenagers’ recreation. There tends to be encouraged a certain narrowness of outlook towards the whole matter of spending: emphasis is put upon consumption-for-pleasure alone or upon the sheer pleasures-of-consumption.

99.  All this is highly pertinent to the Youth Service. It is foolish to act as though this greater spending power does not exist or, if it is admitted, to regret it. It is a fact, and a boon, and may be a direct advantage to the Youth Service itself. The Youth Service might well consider ways in which it can best enlist this greater spending power. Young people are obviously willing to spend freely on things which attract their imaginations. Here is a plain opportunity for the Youth Service, to take advantage of prosperity so as to widen the choices made and vary the opportunities taken by young people. There should surely be no shortage of ideas for good spending, spending which will give not only the pleasure of consumption nor only be aimed at consumption for pleasure, but will be more truly liberating and more continuously rewarding.

 

EMPLOYMENT

 

100.            We have been mindful of the trends in industry and other fields of employment as they will affect the lives of young people, either directly as employees or indirectly through changes in the structure of society, and we mention below some trends and influences which have direct implications for the future of the Youth Service.

101.            Before turning to changes which cannot be forecast so precisely, we must look at the immediate future. We have noted above the big increase in the number of boys and girls who will be looking for jobs in the next few years. What are their chances of finding them? At present about two-thirds of our young people leave school and enter employment at the age of 15. The sharp growth in the number reaching that age will come in the three years 1961—63, during which the boys and girls needing jobs will be about a fifth above the 1958—1960 average. The schools and the youth employment service, through which a majority now find their first job, must naturally feel concern that these greater numbers will face more anxious searching for jobs and some enforced idleness while waiting for them; and it has been suggested that the Youth Service may need to make special provision for young people who are not in employment, although we would hope that their numbers would be reduced by an increase in those voluntarily continuing at school. So far, however, the level of economic activity has seemed to be a more important factor in determining the amount of unemployment of young workers than their increasing numbers in the working population. Given a steady and reasonably high level of employment, therefore, the larger entry of young people need not present a serious national problem. Certainly it will mean added work for the youth employment service; an addition more than proportionate to the growth in the numbers handled.  Although it is outside our terms of reference, we must stress the importance of the youth employment officers’ task at this critical period of transition from school to work, and the need for their numbers to be adequate to keep close contact with the young people they are serving. At this stage particularly it is difficult to consider the Youth Service, as we are required to do, in isolation : workers in it are, or should be, members of a group including parents, teachers, youth employment officers and, on occasion, probation officers, who are helping young people in the move from school into the outside world

102.            It is not possible here for us to review at length the nature and effect of the changes which (over relatively few years) may transform many aspects of industrial life as we know it now; though in referring to them it is worth recalling that manufacturing industry employs less than half the working population, and that change in other fields, such as agriculture, mining, commerce and the provision of services, will occur in different ways at different rates. It is industry, however, which sets the pattern of working life at present, and changes in it affect the whole community

103.            One example of this springs to mind. More costly and more specialised plant in industry increases the need for shift working, and may lead to an equivalent change in the hours at which services, whether for work or leisure, have to be provided. Young people cannot themselves be employed on shift work until they reach the age of 18, yet shift working may affect their lives in ways that add to the calls on the Youth Service. The absence of one, or occasionally two parents from the home in what are young people’s normal leisure hours not only reduces parental influence but also requires some substitute for the sort of leisure-time activities that might otherwise occur within the family

104.            To turn from the nature of work to the time spent in the workplace? the present trend suggests that young people can look forward to rather more leisure. The average hours worked by adults in most occupations have not so far changed materially in the years since or before the last war, even if the hours covered by industrial agreements have slightly decreased. Over the working year, there has been some reduction of hours worked, by the extension of holidays. However, most young people are working fewer hours than before or immediately after the war, and are less attracted by the rewards of overtime. The trend, exemplified in current negotiations for a shorter working week, should therefore mean more time away from the workplace for the young person.

105.            One other important trend must be mentioned, although its implication for the Youth Service is rather indirect. In spite of the changes in types of skill required and in the requirements of different industries, there is on the whole a greater assurance of continuity of income over the individual’s working life. Society has set itself an aim, which it believes it has the techniques to achieve, of keeping unemployment well below the level accepted as normal twenty years ago and it offers a greater degree of protection in sickness. The present tendency, fostered by a powerful trade union movement, is towards greater protection during redundancy, so as to ease the personal hardships which are involved in mobility of labour. All this change is for the better: but looking at its bearing on the Youth Service, we recognise that to some young people, boys particularly, it represents removal of a challenge to their capabilities which they will seek to replace elsewhere than at work

106.            The implications of the changing pattern of industrial life for the educational system and for industry’s own training arrangements are outside our sphere. Many young people, particularly boys, enter industry in occupations requiring some qualification which is to be obtained by continued study and which is a necessary step in further progress. With its growing need for technological and managerial skills, industry is making more use of techniques of selection, at every level from higher management to craft apprenticeship. Unfortunately any system of human selection tends to be regarded as a system of rejection by those who seek its prizes and fail. Perhaps a quickly developing industrial society must pick out its most promising candidates for training at each level by rigorously testing their abilities. But we must remember that the stresses of this challenge to their personal worth fall most heavily on the young and immature.  Failure to gain apprenticeship, a Higher National Certificate or an Inter B.Sc., may be as hurtful an experience to a boy as failure to pass the eleven plus test or a scholarship examination

107.            The continuation from school into working life of this process of selection is all part of a deliberate attempt by our society to base its structure on merit, to give opportunity for advancement to those who can make best use of it. This raises problems for young people which we examine further in Part II of this chapter. Inevitably selection relies on measurable qualities, and tends to put emphasis on intellectual ones.  It provides a ladder which the most able boys and girls climb; while at each step there are others who, at an age when they are not armoured to meet disappointment philosophically, are made conscious of being left behind. Among them will be many who in vitality and in all the qualities of leadership other than the intellectual ones are the match of those to whom wider opportunities are offered. Not the least of the Youth Service’s tasks is to give all these young people an outlet for their varied abilities, an opportunity for achievement, and the recognition by society of the real contributions they can make to it.

 

LIFE AT WORK

 

108.            Most school leavers look forward to the change of status and living and to the gain of personal responsibility which they imagine work provides. Many are not disappointed. But to more than a few the change brings disillusion: some find ambitions frustrated, some find the idealism of youth over-shadowed by the conflict between the moral standards of work and those of home or school: for some the gain in responsibility is outweighed by the impersonality of a system which no longer exists primarily to serve their needs. Again, some will find in work a challenge and an interest; others tedium or monotony. There is no one pattern of life at work. Different kinds of job and environment offer varied degrees of satisfaction, conceal different hazards to the health of body or mind, and provide a social background as varied as man himself.

109.            One part of the pattern is common. There is bound to be strain in the transition from the orderly, disciplined world of school, with its understood short-term objectives, to the larger and less intelligible world of work. Those who enter it, particularly in the less skilled occupations run into new problems of discipline, loyalty and responsibility. Industrial efficiency has always necessitated restrictions on the individual at work but the nature of discipline at many workplaces has changed or is changing.  Full employment has weakened some of the old sanctions: direct incentives to work, which now play a larger part, impose new strains on those who are below the norm. The area of those industrial affairs which are considered the joint responsibility of employers and employed is growing, and the worker becomes more involved with management problems. And in a highly organised industrial society relations between employer and trade union may impose on the individual the strain of divided loyalties.

110.            In entering this changing world, some young people from school may suffer from the disappearance of familiar landmarks; and miss the comfortable unambitious earmarking for “Dad’s trade”, which was once so much a feature of industrial society. Others, more lively-minded, may chafe to find themselves working under men whose thinking is out of line with present educational levels, and suffer frustration through inability to contribute their full intelligence to the problems of their employment. One thing is sure: in the next few years young people will be entering employment in conditions of change and fluidity which will add to the strains of adolescence and the problems of adjustment to the adult world.

111.            They will need, then, all that their own resilience and the help of our educational and social provision can give to them. The trend towards a five-year secondary education should give the schools more opportunity to equip them for the adaptability they will need, and to develop the leisure interests which can compensate for the dullness of some jobs and relax the tension of others. For those whose work involves continued study at technical colleges and other establishments for further education the transition will be easier; the more so because their life at work is likely also to be more ordered and guided and to provide clearer objectives.

112.            For some time these are likely to be ‘the lucky ones. Few industries are yet ready to invest in the systematic training of all their young employees; and the majority of those who do not at present need special skills will go to their tasks with the minimum of planned training and, more important, with little preparation for the need that may later arise for them to acquire new skills or aptitudes. We are particularly conscious of the lack of opportunity which, in the absence of the county college, industry in general provides for any working girls or for many boys to have continued educational experience or to develop their personality at work. It is to young people such as these that society owes a special debt, since they leave the educational system earlier than many of their contemporaries. This debt can be paid in part by a Youth Service which can provide adequately for their development as adults and citizens.

 

CHAPTER 2: Young People Today PART II: THE WORLD OF YOUNG PEOPLE

 

113.            We turn now to less tangible changes in society and try to assess their impact on young people. There can be no precise measurements or objective proofs of these changes: but this does not make the consideration of them meaningless. Again, some of the factors introduced below may seem so sophisticated as to be unlikely to affect the particular teenagers everyone knows. Yet elements in the “mental climate” of which many people, young or old, are hardly aware may unconsciously affect their attitudes in all sorts of day-to-day decisions and challenges. And adolescents are the litmus-paper of a society. Subject to continuous and considerable mental, emotional and physical changes, as yet unregulated by the formal demands in the daily life of the breadwinner or housewife, adolescents are unusually exposed to social changes

114.            Today’s adolescents live within a world sharply divided into two immense blocks of power; and a world under a constant threat of nuclear catastrophe. In addition, their own country’s power and international status, once so great and indisputable, are now less easily assumed. These issues may only be made articulate by a few. We are persuaded, nevertheless, that they are felt to lie immediately behind the small stage of many an adolescent’s activities, like a massive and belittling backcloth.

115.            The society which adolescents now enter is in some respects unusually fluid. Old industries change their nature as new processes are adopted; new industries appear and help to shift the location of industry itself. New towns arise, and new estates on the outskirts of old towns deplete the established housing areas and alter their social composition. A series of Education Acts, notably that of 1944, are causing some movement across class and occupational boundaries and should in time cause more.  So British society is beginning to acquire greater mobility and openness. The effects of these changes are not always marked at present: some groups seem to live much as they have lived for many years. Yet as the changes develop, so old habits, old customs, old sanctions, old freedoms and responsibilities will be called in question and new relationships demanded. Some adults, set within the cake of custom and routine, may be able to pay little attention. But these changes are of the new world of adolescents.  They, trying to find their direction without so many customary signposts, perhaps without the long-established habits of a steady local life, will be put under special strains. For these changes, towards what we have called a greater openness and fluidity, leave the individual more exposed, demand a greater number of deliberate and individual decisions.

116.            Yet paradoxically this society is increasingly organised and set into formal patterns. Adolescence is always a period in which the energies and growing needs of individuals conflict with the customs, the necessarily restricting adult customs, of society as a whole. So much is unavoidable.  Different societies have greater or less success in allowing adolescents to arrive at their own kind of maturity without damaging themselves or society in the process. But as technological needs and social planning increase so does the centralised organisation of individual lives. There is an ironic interaction between this change and that outlined in the preceding Paragraph: as older patterns and hierarchies loosen, a new kind of stratification – economic and educational rather than cultural or geographic – begins to emerge from the combined pressure of industrial need and public good intention. To some extent the potentially academic are separated from the rest; so are the technologists, the clerical, the apprentices; and so on with increasing effectiveness. As we have noted earlier, much of this separating into functions is necessary if British society is to maintain and improve its standard of living. But clearly it exacts penalties, unless guided with unremitting care, especially on the emotional life of those who, at the most disturbed period of their lives, are subject to both a new openness and new stratification.

117.            In such a society—democratic (and so having no official “philosophy”), commercial, still to some extent expressing traditional forms and values but rapidly becoming more open and demotic—in such a society young people are between conflicting voices. They can often sense a contradiction between what they are assured, at school and in other public organisations, are this society’s assumptions and standards and much they are invited to interest themselves in and admire once they leave these sheltered environments. They may recognise a similar contrast between what their parents tell them – if indeed they speak of the subject – are the foundations of a worthwhile personal life and the assumptions made on many a hoarding or at many a work-bench. (In films and advertisements, for instance, how little attention is given to the power of mutual respect and of the affectionate sharing of quite undramatic aspirations in promoting courtship, in comparison with the attention given to immediate physical attraction and its accoutrements.) Meanwhile many young workers have a great deal of spare money, and it has become a sizeable business to cater for their wants and to suggest new levels of need or new ways of spending. We have discussed elsewhere the large amount spent by adolescents on only a few kinds of goods. We do not think that all those concerned with this trade are anxious only to divest adolescents of their spending-money as quickly as possible (though the methods used by some of them are questionable). Yet we have also noted elsewhere, and must repeat here, that commercial competition in and by itself ensures that the weight and direction of the appeals now so insistently made to adolescents represent neither the full variety nor the full potentiality of their interests. We do not believe that these interests are so uniform that, left more alone, a vast majority of young people would in exactly the same week be humming the melody of one song as sung by one momentary “star”. Yet all these persuasive voices undoubtedly speak winningly to adolescents, and perhaps especially to those adolescents who, not selected for advanced education or training, may feel an obscure but powerful sense of rejection. They have money but little status; not even, as yet, the controlling responsibilities of family life. Why should they listen, they may feel, to the more sober and often drab voices—urging restraint, caution, discipline and (to them) similarly “old fashioned” attitudes—voices from that very world which has seemed, in its formal classifications, not greatly to care for them?

118.            It is plain that today teenagers receive exceptional attention, of certain kinds. The subject of “youth” or “the youth problem” has recently been so much discussed that it has become difficult either to write firmly about those parts of the attacks on young people which have point, or to speak reasonably and responsibly in their defence, to explore what Burns called “the moving why they do it”.

119.            Since to the normal questionings of adolescence and the contemporary stresses we have already described there is added this excessive public attention, it is no matter for surprise that adolescents are often puzzled, unsure who are really their friends, and sometimes ready to express their uncertainty in strange or even violent forms. We have argued above that today’s teenagers—this will show first in many of the more superficial details of daily life—are living in a world more than usually different from that of their parents. The parents of a typical teenager today passed their own childhood amidst the economic depression (and yet the comparative social stability) of the “twenties” and “thirties”: the father went through the years of military service and the mother of war work, during or soon after which their children were born. The parents now see these children as the teenagers of the early “sixties”, well-fed, healthy, maturing early, well-clothed and prosperous. These young people have tastes, in dress, in amusements and in many other things, widely different from and more costly than any their parents were able to entertain or even now feel able to take for granted. These young people, they may feel ruefully, know nothing of unemployment, of the “dole”, of making ends meet. A particularly strong imaginative effort is needed by anyone over 35 – by middle-class parents as much as by working-class parents – to understand the true quality of the lives of this generation which is itself so often “classless” in appearance and in some of its habits

120.            We mention below some of the generalisations commonly made about adolescents today. We believe that most of them are untrue and distorting. But they have hardened into some of the most striking cliches of the last decade. It is frequently said, then, that young people today belong to “a generation of teenage delinquents”, that they have rejected family life and are “featherbedded” by the Welfare State; that they are increasingly materialistic; “couldn’t care less”, and have no moral values. Probably the most accurate reply to such assertions is also the most obvious: that today’s adolescents are much like those of other generations. Yet we would add this: that when we compare what is so often said about adolescents with the overwhelming unanimity of regard expressed in the evidence of those with long and intimate experience, especially in “difficult” areas, we are left predominantly with a sense of respect and admiration for most young people’s good sense, goodwill, vitality and resilience. Again, a quotation from Burns’ poem addressed to the Unco Guid is relevant:

 

“What’s done we partly may compute

But know not what’s resisted.”

 

In other words, it is easier to note obvious instances of “anti-social” behaviour than realize how much worse might well have happened, in present conditions, had young people not made so many positive, often unconscious, decisions to ignore this kind of appeal or resist that unworthy but shiny temptation. It is easier to condemn by a blanket misreading all new forms (in dress, in dancing, in popular singing) than to acquire the close knowledgewhich will permit an appreciation of the strengths some of these new forms reveal. If those publications, in particular, which now use so much of their space in headlining the aberrations of a small proportion of young people were to exercise as much effort, but a more sensitive imagination, in looking for the signs of positive and worthwhile life, we could assure them that they would have no shortage of exciting material.

121.            It is not surprising, then, that young people today are often unusually self-conscious. They know they are much talked about. In some this self-consciousness can become an admirable self-awareness; in many others it remains as a puzzled self-consciousness, or expresses itself in actions as knotted as the problems they reflect.

122.            Against this whole background we turn now to the questions posed by the common phrases quoted earlier. Delinquency among adolescents has increased sharply during the past few years and we have examined this subject at some length. Here we would emphasise only that indictable offences are committed by only a small proportion of young people.  “Fringe” delinquency may affect many more and therefore the study of youthful delinquency is deeply relevant to a general discussion of young people today. At this point we would stress chiefly the need to consider not only the particular offences committed by particular teenagers, but the extent to which these offences may be an index of tensions affecting almost all young people, even though most meet these tensions without recourse to indictable offences.

123.            We have found no body of evidence sufficient to suggest that teenagers as a whole have rejected family life. Most adolescents, in the course of their natural development, will be anxious to “get out of the house” as often as they can. Even television seems to have little appeal to them; the cinema, partly because it is not home, appeals more strongly. In more homes than formerly the mother goes out to work as well as the father; and this has deprived some adolescents, like the younger “latchkey kids”, of the necessary feeling of assurance that, even though they may wish to be in it only “to eat and sleep”, the home is there as a warm entity. Some of the domestic changes encouraged by increased prosperity and new forms of housing may have made many parents less sure than their own parents were about the way to establish a satisfying home background.  Even the strong interest of many parents in television, which often causes them to have the set switched on for almost the whole of each evening, has probably taken from some adolescents the sense that their parents are ready and willing to listen to their stories of the day, or to discuss a new outfit, or simply that they are there, in spirit as well as in fact, to be turned to as occasion wills. Or it may be that some of the recent changes in the style and properties of young people’s lives, and especially in their recreations, make them readier than usual to desert, in their free time, an environment which seems “corny” and “square”. In spite of all this, we do not think the assumption that married life is right and desirable has yet been generally undermined. The nature of many current temptations might well have caused more young people to try to extend their period of prosperous irresponsibility for as long as possible. Yet early marriages are now a commonplace; and however strange the behaviour of young people may have seemed before marriage, in general the marriages themselves seem much like those of other generations.

124.            It is true that some of the attitudes and actions of young people today do give an impression that they “couldn’t care less”. Yet this attitude is often not so much cynical as sceptical. They feel themselves in a world and society which disagrees about or is unsure about its meaning and purpose (this is not to say that they find their day to day personal life tasteless or without standards). Meanwhile much of the outside world constantly tries to persuade them to believe this or think that, to try this or laugh at that. Yet the realities of their daily work, the small sense of status this gives them, often makes them feel (whatever the friendly public voices say) that at the bottom the outside world regards them as indistinguishable units, a mass. What wonder that they often react into a defensive refusal to give of their inner selves.  “It’s all brainwashing” they say fiercely, equally of those who would “sell” them soap, records, drink, politics, religion, “the whole lot are out to brainwash you. Why should I buy it?” Yet the fierceness with which they can say this indicates an acute disappointment. From one aspect it is a sign of health that they throw up so strongly self-respecting a defence against the conflicting mass of public voices. We do not think this attitude much extends to their personal relations with one another, and these are often marked by a vivid and tolerant co-operativeness. And this scepticism towards almost all that does not come within the concrete, particular and known area of local life is not confined to one social or educational group. In different forms it can be seen in undergraduates as in unskilled workers (and in Paris and Chicago as in London—indeed, some of the basic causes are common to countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain). To dismiss the outside world as “square” is to some extent a natural feature of adolescence, but today’s rejections seem often to go beyond this. to have a peculiar edge and penetration. They suggest how strong is the potential idealism of young people, that idealism which is now so often baffled and turned back upon itself. At what should be the age for enthusiasm, for attack, for unregarding commitment, in a period offering unparalleled opportunities for young people to see and know and explore, whole areas of human experience have been thus defensively written off. As if in compensation young people often show an intense loyalty to things and people they believe to be of their own kind (ironically, many of the teenagers’ own idols have been manipulated into prominence by the machines for promotion and publicity). When something attracts their loyalty and seems not to be a “sell”, they will show and accept leadership and discipline of a high order. Even the elaborate codes of urban gangs illustrate this, and youth workers in tough areas confirm it of many among the “unattached”.

125.            We have noted above some of the more challenging factors in modern society—especially an increased social fluidity in some parts of life along with an increased stratification in others, and the multitude of warring voices—and we have made plain our conviction that, in their efforts to come to terms with these changes, many young people display admirable qualities. It would be wrong for us not to say also, what many devoted youth workers, teachers, employers, union officials and clergy know well, that the very existence of these problems can be used by some adolescents, consciously or unconsciously, as a justification for indifference or irresponsibility. There is a kind of selfishness which will not yield itself to any demand outside its own immediately felt needs. The “spirit that denies” the mind resolutely closed to the self-discipline necessary for growth, can exist in adolescents as it can in adults; and the more unrestrained behaviour of some young people today cannot be laid wholly at the door of perverse social forces. To imply this would be to undermine individual responsibility and dignity.

126.  Change should be a challenge, not a master. Many of the social changes we have discussed were intended to contribute to social justice, and can be made so to contribute if we have the will. We repeat that we believe the great majority of young people have this innate capacity. It is for the Youth Service, in co-operation with parents, other branches of the educational service and many other organisations, to help young people to develop this capacity, the better to meet the challenge of a changing world.

 

CHAPTER 3: Justification and Aims of the Youth Service

 

127.            The need for a Youth Service cannot simply be assumed. It is possible to argue cogently that public money should not spent in providing what are largely recreational amenities for those who have finished their full-time education and are earning wages. If they are prepared to pay, practically any amenity young people may want is available to them. This is a free society (the argument continues), leave them alone in it.

128.            We are sure ourselves that there should a Youth Service; we are equally sure that its justification has to be questioned as radically as possible.  The fact that a Youth Service already exists is not at this point relevant. We think it right therefore to set down what seems to us, drawing upon the many valuable statements submitted to us, the justification for a publicly-supported Youth Service. But first it will be well to say, briefly, what a Youth Service is not.

129.            It will already clear that we do not underestimate the problem of youthful delinquency nor the extent to which a good Youth Service may incidentally help to alleviate it. But to make this a ground for the existence of a Youth Service is either to exaggerate the number of delinquents or to underestimate the way in which a Youth Service may be of value to the great majority who will never enter a juvenile or adult court.  The Service is not negative, a means of ‘keeping them off the streets’ or ‘out of trouble’.

130.            However admirable a Youth Service may be it is, of course, neither possible nor desirable that everyone, or even the great majority of young at any one time, should take part in it. Many will remain happily and fruitfully ‘unattached’.  Many more will in fact be ‘attached’ than show on official returns. There are a host of valuable submerged activities, not shown on any returns — local cycling clubs, neighbourhood football clubs, and so on. In grass-roots local organisations young people can, without formal statements of purpose, show remarkable self-reliance, co-operation and tolerance. It seems to us true, however, that many who are not now ‘attached’ either officially or unofficially could, if properly approached, be attached and benefit from the attachment.

 

JUSTIFICATION

 

131.            To who doubt the need for a Youth Service we would put this question. The State makes extensive provision for social development parallel with its provision for intellectual development, up to whatever age young people remain in full-time education: is it right that this social provision should end so abruptly for the less intellectual, simply because they have been withdrawn from formal education? One can contrast the standard of premises usual in organisations within the Youth Service with those of a residential hostel or undergraduates’ common room in almost any redbrick university.  Again, many secondary modern schools are now generously provided with out-of-class amenities (equipment, the use of pleasant rooms for club meetings, an informal library). Anyone who has experienced the atmosphere of a good secondary modern school of this type must regret the comparative poverty of social and communal provision for boys and girls who thereafter go immediately into working life. The age of compulsory school leaving will at some time, perhaps within a few years, be raised to 16.  Presumably the existing level of informal provision will then be carried to that point—and presumably then virtually stop. If these informal activities are needed by 15-year-olds today and will be needed by 16-year-olds tomorrow; if they are needed by those up to 21 years of age today (so long as they are in full-time education), they are undoubtedly needed by all those whose intellectual equipment has not been to keep them under the comfortable umbrella of full-time education.

132.            It is recognised that the more academically gifted can gain from good social provision: premises which encourage corporate life and activities; helpful and understanding contact with intelligent adults. Other young people go out at the age of 15 into a society so confusing that even adults have difficulty in finding their direction in it. There is a striking lack of logic in an arrangement which gives the benefits of social education to those who remain with the ordered society of an institution for full-time education, but gives only the most niggling provision to those whose need for such resources is so much greater.

133.            Thirty years ago comparatively little was provided in what were then called elementary schools to meet the informally educative needs of young people. A great imaginative leap has since been taken, and new schools, more comprehensively planned, more variously staffed, more flexibly equipped, have been financed from the public purse. An adequate Youth Service will require an imaginative leap no less than that which is now transforming our secondary modern schools. We believe no less is needed.

 

AIMS AND IDEALS

 

134.            We do not, as we shall hope to show, underestimate the value of formal educational effort within the Youth Service. But we believe that the primary basis of such a service is social or pastoral. This is, of course, an educational purpose in a sense wider than that usually understood, and has been comprehensively expressed in Sir John Maud’s[28] well-known statement of Youth Service aims: “To offer individual young people in their leisure time opportunities of various kinds, complementary to those of home, formal education and work, to discover and develop their personal resources of body, mind and spirit and thus the better equip themselves to live the life of mature, creative and responsible members of a free society”.

135.            We believe this statement should, to gain its full force, be set against the contemporary background we have described—of a society at once so complex, so formal and so fluid that its conflicting pressures can substantially discourage good development. The aim of the Youth Service is not to remove tensions so as to reach towards some hypothetical condition of “adjustment” to individual or social life. It is to help towards ensuring that those tensions which are social accidents, often both fruitless and oppressive, shall not submerge the better possibilities of children during their adolescence. The Service should seek first to provide places for association in which young people may maintain and develops in the face of a disparate society, their sense of fellowship, of mutual respect and tolerance. Such centres may also help to counteract the increasing educational and professional stratification of society. Those who are intellectually or financially well-endowed have as much to gain as others from the opportunity for mixed fellowship, as much to learn from as to give to others. It is very difficult to run a club whose members have mixed educational backgrounds, but it is exceptionally well worth trying

136.            Yet, as we have said, an adolescent today moves into a society at once formidably restricted and surprisingly permissive, and finds himself canvassed by many agencies which seek to alter his attitudes in ways congenial to them. He needs to develop his capacity for making sound judgments; he needs, to take only one instance, opportunities for realising that some things — slower and more hardly won — are nevertheless more rewarding than the excitements offered in each day’s passing show. This is to us the basis of the case for specific education and training within the Youth Service. It does not conflict with the aim suggested earlier, but rather complements it. But clearly this kind of specific education must be imaginatively conceived and directed. Association in itself may be useless for young people, or it may be immensely educational, according to the imagination of the leadership. And merely formal education may satisfy the letter but kill the spirit of educational development in youth. If educational activity is flexibly planned, we believe it can both connect relevantly with the experience of the students and be tough and demanding. We do not think most young people seek soft options, but that they do want a clear aim in their efforts.

137.            Association of the right kind and training of the right kind—to these two primary aims of a Youth Service we would add a third: challenge. This aspect can inform all others, and we discuss it at greater length in Chapter 5. Here we would stress only two points; that many adolescents have a strong need to find something they can do, individually or in a chosen group, which they feel to be deeply worthwhile beyond pleasure or personal reward; and that it is immensely important that young people, of different kinds and levels of ability, should have opportunities to display and to respect forms of pre-eminence in fields other than the academic

138.            To sum up: the question now should not be, ought there to be a Youth Service, but can this country any longer make do with one so plainly ill-equipped to meet the needs of the day. In this time of unprecedented plenty, the lives of many young people are likely to be poorer at 20 than one might have guessed on seeing them eagerly leave school at 15. Young people have never been more in a crowd—and never more alone; without a Youth Service many of them would not be more free but less free. A properly supported Youth Service can help many more individuals to find their own way better, personally and socially. This country must choose to have a Youth Service adequately provided for these most important purposes.

 

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

 

139.            We have tried in the preceding chapter to look at the world as young people see it. We try now to stand in the shoes of those who work among young people, and again draw largely on the evidence given to us.

140.            Many of them, voluntary or paid workers, have many years of experience behind them. Usually they have come into the Youth Service the hard way, through work in clubs and voluntary organisations. They have deprived themselves of adult company and enjoyments. In noisy halls and dingy rooms they have struggled against the apathy of the nation, and often against the indifference of young people, to keep going and to build up organisations which they (and at times it must have seemed they alone) recognised to be necessary for society as well as for young people themselves. They knew that they must live and work to high principles, and came to see that certain attitudes were just as necessary too on the part of those who benefited, if the work was to succeed even in the most limited way. They had to ask for loyalty, a sense of responsibility, good comradeship, a conception however imprecise of a larger community which must in some measure be served. The more sharply the leaders saw these needs the more urgently they tried to stir their club members to feel them too. It is a matter of history that strong ethical feelings moved the pioneering voluntary organisations to undertake their hard practical jobs over the years. Without those ethical feelings they might never have come into existence or grown at all.

141.            To this zeal we pay strong tribute. Yet over a period of time there is a tendency for ethical impulses to lose their immediacy and drive, and to seem to young people unrelated to the situations in which they find themselves. Young people can today, therefore, turn away from many good enterprises especially designed for them, because the forms and phrases in which they are presented seem highfaluting or irrelevant. At a time when many young people feel tempted to reject adult experience and authority it is plain that the Youth Service should not seem to offer something packaged — a “way of life”, a “set of values”, a “code”, as though these were things which came ready-made, upon the asking, without being tested in living experience.

142.            Young people themselves must in the last resort choose to allow adults to try and help. There can be no simple transmitting of a priori values, because to the expanding energies and enquiries of adolescence most values are not a priori. If they feel the need, young people must have the liberty to question cherished ideas, attitudes and standards, and if necessary to reject them. We have stressed this point because we think one of the more important limitations in some parts of the Youth Service today may be called a failure in communication. Because of this gap we believe more are now unclubbed than are in fact unclubbable.

143.            We touch directly now on two related points on which we earnestly hope not to be misunderstood. The first has to do with the spiritual aims of the Youth Service and in particular with the fact that many statements of purpose (not only those of denominational organisations) include reference to the need for “communicating Christian values”. Obviously we are deeply sympathetic to this aim, and indeed the Education Act of 1944 lays on local education authorities the duty “to contribute towards the spiritual,moral, mental, and physical development of the community …” (section 7).  Denominational or specifically committed organisations must remain free to give expression to their spiritual ideals in their youth work. For the Youth Service as a whole, however, we think this way of embodying aims is mistaken. For many young people today the discussion of “spiritual values” or “Christian values” chiefly arouses suspicion. In view of the background described in this and the preceding chapter such a response is not altogether surprising. We are not, we need hardly add, implying that young people are immoral or unidealistic: we are saying that the shaky or contradictory expression of “spiritual values” within society as a whole and the weakening of public speech are so persuasive as to cause many young people to reject habitually a direct approach of this kind. And those with more independent minds are likely to reject the more forcefully. We have been told of those who will say directly that the Youth Service should not be a disguised backdoor to religious beliefs or a form of “moral exploitation”. We would repeat therefore that it is on the whole better for principles to be seen shining through works than for them to be signalised by some specific spiritual assertion.

144.            We would make similar observations on the frequently stated aim of “training young people in citizenship”. When so much in the public life seems suspect to them, is it surprising that only a few respond to this aim in this form? As one witness told us, “Citizenship is a word that has little meaning for young people”.  Playing one’s part as a citizen is highly important, and the activities of the Youth Service are relevant to it. But the beginnings of “citizenship” can be seen as much in the subtlety and tact of social relations in a good youth club, even in a tough area, as in straight-forward discussions of good citizenship. These qualities cannot be easily translated into the conditions of public life today, but they are a good foundation for such a translation

145.            Much in the foregoing raises the involved question of communication in a society which has been to a large extent hierarchically divided in its speech and is now becoming, especially through the activities of “mass communications”, almost demotically “classless”. W. H. Auden has some lines to the effect that:

 

“All words like peace and love,

 All sane affirmative speech

 Has been soiled, profaned, debased,

 To a horrid mechanical screech.”

 

We believe this is largely true and that it affects young people’s response to what is said to them even if they are not intellectually sophisticated. We have been struck by the great number of occasions, in the evidence presented to us, on which words such as the following have been used as though they were a commonly accepted and valid currency: “service”, “dedication”, “leadership”, “character building”. Again, we wish not to be misunderstood. We in no way challenge the value of the concepts behind these words, or their meaningfulness to those who use them. Nor do we think that young people are without these qualities, or that they cannot be strengthened. But we are sure that these particular words now connect little with the realities of life as most young people see them; they do not seem to “speak to their condition”. They recall the hierarchies, the less interesting moments of school speech-days and other occasions of moral exhortation. Yet though many young people may be inclined to turn away if they are asked for “service”, in the relationships of their neighbourhoods and at the work-bench they often show “service” in action. We believe that they are grateful for help in seeing, defining and acting according to moral standards, but that they wish to see these relevantly embodied, and that this relevance must be shown in language. They are often today in a peculiar wasteland; by instinct they reject many of the false values offered by elements in their society; but they are unable to accept the terms used by more disinterested and sincerely devoted people. Their failure to attend youth clubs may be less often a sign of apathy than of the failure of their seniors properly to adjust their forms of language.

146.            Of the host of general principles behind a good Youth Service (most of which we hope to embody in our recommendations) we would stress two here, variety and flexibility, because of their special relevance to the situation just described. If the centralisation of social life, whilst providing a greater abundance of material things than ever before, tends to narrow the kinds of choice. to centralise also taste, then the Youth Service should seek to irrigate these choices. In this connection we are struck by the success of some areas in introducing certain activities, traditionally thought of as a preserve of the “upper” groups of society, to mixed groups of young people (see Chapter 5) and the attempt of some authorities to enlist the greater prosperity of young people by providing comparatively expensive hobby courses of a high standard for them. And we are persuaded of the truth of the claim made by some specialist organisations, with no specific ideological or denominational purpose (e.g. sports organisations, the Youth Hostels Association) that their facilities are indirectly of considerable value to the personal and social development of their members. Flexibility involves realising that young people have fierce but often temporary interests, that they experience what one witness called “passionate patches” and that one may cater for and develop from these without quickly assuming that adolescents have butterfly minds; that, in fact, one should be ready to provide for short-term, “used-up” activities. It follows also that, in the interests of variety and for other reasons we discuss later, we are strongly in favour of retaining in general the existing mixed pattern of provision, between voluntary and statutory bodies. At this point we would add only this: that real variety is not achieved simply by having a number of organisations with different constitutions and names. There is today a greater variety of names among voluntary organisations than of significantly different approaches

147.            In this stress on flexibility and variety we do not intend to open the gate to any activity without reference to its objectives and standards. Nor, in asking for a wider understanding of psychological and social tensions in adolescence, are we recommending an abdicating assimilation to the adolescent’s view of the world. Youth work is peculiarly challenging precisely because it requires a tense day-to-day walking on a razor-edge between sympathy and surrender. The reactions of adolescence are not the last word on the condition of contemporary society; however unsuccessful adults may sometimes be in embodying them, the values they profess are not in fact “all brainwashing”.

148.            This chapter and the one before it have been chiefly about gaps: about the gap between what is provided for the social and recreational life of young people so long as they are in formal education, and what is provided thereafter; about the gap between the challenges and opportunities for achievement presented to the intellectually gifted, and those presented to others; about the gap between what home, church or school may tell them about the nature of life, and what they glean from a host of other sources; about the gap between the speech of disinterested adults, and what they feel is the real language of life; about the gap between what the Youth Service might do if properly supported, and what it is able to achieve today. We believe that it is of the first importance that these gaps and these needs should be understood, not only by those directly concerned with the Youth Service but by society as a whole.

 

CHAPTER 4: The Youth Service Tomorrow

THE AGE RANGE

 

149.            In the chapters which have preceded this we have argued the need for a Youth Service and suggested the principles which should govern it in the future. If the large expansion we hope for is to be carried through and the new approaches we suggest encouraged at every level, what changes of machinery and structure are necessary? This will be the principal theme of this chapter. But first we have to examine the question of the age range. When Circular 1486 established the Youth Service the school leaving age for the majority of children was, of course, 14. It was assumed that the Youth Service would cater principally for those who had left school, and its range was therefore set for those between 14 and 20. The raising of the school leaving age to 15 produced an automatic adjustment of the Youth Service range of 15—20. Thus the Ministry of Education, in a memorandum to the Select Committee on Estimates in 1957, explained that “the expression Youth Service is generally used to denote the promotion, by voluntary bodies and local education authorities acting together or separately, of the social and physical training and recreation of people aged 15—20 who have left school”. There are many reasons why this concept is inadequate. To begin with, ought the Youth Service to cater only for those who have left school? This interpretation would mean refusing entry to the grammar school boy until he is 18 and, if the school leaving age is generally raised, putting up the minimum age to 16. No one, in fact, has ever tried to operate the Youth Service in this cast-iron way, and had anyone succeeded the result would have encouraged the intellectual and perhaps social stratification of youth which we deplore and which it ought to be one of the aims of the Service to overcome so far as lies in its power. It is essential in our view that grammar and technical school boys and girls should be welcome in the organisations and clubs promoted by the Service. And of course they are: they have much to contribute and to receive. That being so, there is no logical reason for refusing to extend the benefits of its provisions to those over fifteen and still at school, and indeed section 55 of the 1944 Act directly encourages this view.

150.            Further, it can be shown that there are wise grounds of a special nature for considering a lowering of the present age range for the Youth Service by one year. We have been much impressed by the abundance of evidence about the earlier maturity and at least superficial sophistication of many young people in the last school year at the secondary modern school.  We know that they are restless and critical then and anxious to move out of the childish world into the freedoms of adolescence. We have been equally impressed by the failure of many children’s organisations to hold their members at precisely this age, and by the need all clubs and movements feel to build a bridge between school and life in the world before the boy or girl has actually left school.

151.            The transition to the working world is so abrupt and its manifold activities are so confusing to the young that they may not know precisely where or how to turn to the Service for help. If teachers and scholars in their last school year can come to know youth organisations and clubs, and their leaders, and school leavers can enter actively into membership then there is much more chance of holding their interest and loyalty later on.  Even if we can reach them it may be too late to try to persuade them into membership at a time when their first disappointments of the world have made them suspicious of everything provided for them by adults

152.            Nevertheless, we do not expect that an extension downwards by one year will change the pattern of the Youth Service. It will remain what it was always intended to be, a Service primarily to help young people who are out in a world which lacks the wealth of community provision and the personal contacts of the school. We see no reason to alter the upper limit of the age range, although there may well be a tapering off of demand because of earlier marriage, and because an adequate Youth Service will, we hope, help young people to find their feet in the adult world as soon as they are ready for it.

153.            We therefore recommend that the Service shall be available for all young people aged 14—20 inclusive. There might be a case for reconsidering the lower age limit if and when the school leaving age is raised.

 

STATUTORY PROVISION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE YOUTH SERVICE

 

154.            As we have recalled, the Youth Service was born in 1939 by decision of the then President of the Board of Education. No Act of Parliament was considered necessary: the new provision asked for from local education authorities was or could be covered by section 86 of the Education Act of 1921. However, the White Paper which heralded the 1944 Act (Educational Reconstruction, Cmd. 6458) proclaimed that the Service “was not to be regarded as simply a war-time expedient, but that it should take its place as an integral part of the national system of education”. Wide powers were written into the 1944 Act to authorise just that. Section 1 says that it is the Minister’s duty “to promote the education of the people of England and Wales and the progressive development of institutions devoted to that purpose, and to secure the effective execution by local authorities, under his control and direction, of the national policy for providing a varied and comprehensive educational service in every area”.  These were wider ministerial powers than any President of the old Board had possessed.  Though strangely the Youth Service is nowhere mentioned by name in the Act, and its place and functions are in that sense left undefined, two sections, 41 and 53[29] lay certain duties on local education authorities. Their powers under these sections are so wide as to justify almost any reasonable provision for any group of the population. Statutory powers for all the developments we propose seem ample, and except on one point we have not thought it necessary to ask whether legislation is, or might turn out to be, necessary.[30]

 

THE TASK OF THE MINISTRY

 

155.            The powers, then, of the Ministry and the local education to develop the Youth Service are fully adequate, but a large number of witnesses complained that they had not been exercised in accordance with the spirit and intention of Parliament when conferring them.  We accept this evidence, and, whatever the reasons for this failure, we are convinced that the lack of an effective lead has contributed largely to the weaknesses in the existing Service. In terms of the Act it is the duty of the Minister to promote the education of the people of England and Wales. On the 20th February, 1958, in answer to a parliamentary question, the Minister said that he regarded the Youth Service as a permanent part of the education service, that he was convinced of its value and of the importance of the work done by those engaged in it, and that he intended to encourage and foster their efforts as much as he could. We believe that he should foster these efforts by more positive and consistent guidance, by financial incentives to the voluntary bodies, and by securing the performance by local authorities of the duties put upon them by sections 41 and 53 of the Education Act, 1944.

156.            The making of policy must rest with the Minister, but the carrying out of policy may be hampered or hindered if the machinery is not there.  We wish to propose changes both in policy and in machinery. The first proposal concerns policy. The Youth Service is facing two emergencies. The first arises from the bulge and the ending of national service, the second from the disquiet generated by the apparent estrangement from society of some sections of the young. These emergencies can only be dealt with by a rapid growth in the Service, by improvement in the quality, training and conditions of service of its leaders and workers, and by new approaches towards the young. We do not know how the emergencies can be met properly unless there is a strong sense of urgency at the top which can produce the appropriate machinery. We hope that this sense of urgency will find expression in an early circular from the Ministry

157.            We believe that a ten-year development programme is required, to start in 1960. During the first five years prompt steps must be taken to catch up with a situation already upon us. During the second five-year period the permanent structure should be securely established. Throughout this period of development the Minister will need to have at his disposal the best possible advice and help. We have noted that the Youth Advisory Council (the successor to the National Youth Committee) has ceased to exist and that no permanent ministerial committee has been appointed in its place.  The Central Advisory Councils for Education alone are in a position to give advice, but their capacity to do this is strictly limited as they are busy with many problems. What is needed is a committee which can take the fullest cognizance of the many important experiments being made in Britain and elsewhere; which can encourage the most promising of these, which can make sure that lines of enquiry that need to be followed up are being followed up[31]; and which can bring together the fruits of many fields of experience and suggest how the best use can be made of them.  We therefore propose the appointment by the Minister of a small committee of not more than twelve persons, to be called the Youth Service Development Council. It should be composed of men and women who have special qualities and experience to offer, among whom we think at least two should have knowledge of the special problems of Wales. The Council members should not be appointed on a representative basis. This Council, which would need to meet frequently, to be adequately staffed and to work closely with the Ministry and H.M. Inspectors, should examine the further education schemes of local education authorities as they affect the Youth Service; it should be responsible for a broad assessment of the extent to which the policy with regard to the Service is being implemented and the effectiveness of this policy, and for suggesting modifications of policy in the light of this assessment or changed circumstances; and it should help to promote, in whatever other ways the Minister asks of it, the two five-year plans we recommend. All this calls for organisation which is less concerned with administration and far more with enquiry, with the sharing of ideas and the promotion of new activities.

158.            We see, however, a limited life for the Development Council. When the ten years of development are over the Service should be fully integrated everywhere within the main structure of further education. At that point it may be wise to disband the Council and to return its general advisory functions to the Central Advisory Councils or sub-committees of them, or appoint a National Youth Committee of a more representative character to exercise those functions.

159.            We feel that the new status which we desire for the Youth Service should at the same time be reflected in the Ministry. With that object we urge the Minister to make certain that his administrative arrangements will ensure that decisions on matters relating to the Service can be taken at an appropriately high level and can be implemented quickly. This should facilitate the work of the Development Council in advising on building programmes, professional training and conditions of service of full-time leaders, and in the promotion of research.

 

THE TASK OF THE LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES

 

160.            The Minister may promote, direct and control the many types of provision which create the Youth Service. He will know from H.M. Inspectors what is being done, what they think of it and how they suggest it might be improved. But neither Minister nor Ministry can actually do the work. Executive power is plainly fixed upon local education authorities by the Act. The function of the authorities, as we see it, is and should be to determine a policy for their areas in consultation with the voluntary bodies; to establish the machinery for co-operation and for the co-ordination of development, servicing and training; to encourage and give financial aid to voluntary effort through existing voluntary organisations and in other ways; and to ensure that adequate and varied facilities are provided.

161.            Necessarily every local education authority, as the guardian of public purse, must be the judge of what provision it is wise to make, what staff is necessary to carry it through and what form the co-operation with voluntary bodies had best take. It would be improper as well as foolish for any outside body to lay down hard and fast schemes of organisation for authorities, and to try would strike at the variety and flexibility which we hope to encourage. Nevertheless it is vital for education committees to give adequate attention to the needs of the Youth Service. We are aware of the many developments in other fields of education which overload their agenda, and there is a danger that Youth Service matters may have to take a low priority. We therefore recommend that at least during the period of development a sub-committee of the education committee itself not a sub-committee of a sub-committee) should be charged with responsibility for the Youth Service. We are not in favour of co-opting representatives of youth organisations as such to this sub-committee, because we believe that it should be small and executive in character. Any individuals co-opted to it should be chosen for the personal contribution they can make. We think that the duties of this sub-committee should bear some relation to those of the Development Council which we are proposing should be set up at ministerial level.

162.            Such a sub-committee as we have in mind will need the advice and co-operation of the other partners in the Youth Service. We believe that this can best be secured by having an advisory committee with full representation from the voluntary organisations. This advisory committee should be consulted about such major problems of the Service as development, co-operation, staffing and training. We believe that it should be serviced by officers of the local education authority. We are glad to know that some authorities already follow this pattern

163.            This committee structure, and the acceleration of decision-making we have proposed, would give the Youth Service the high priority in the authority’s business we have argued to be necessary and would sensibly aid the speedy development of the Service. However, this cannot be secured by resolutions alone. Action is needed. As a first step we recommend that the further education schemes of local education authorities be brought up to date so far as they concern provision for the leisure of young people. We would hope that these reviews might be based on a survey of current needs, which should include an examination of the pattern of voluntary effort and its potentialities, a consideration of the problem of premises and outdoor recreational facilities, an investigation into the effective staffing of the work from the full-time to the voluntary worker, and the need for training schemes for voluntary and part-time workers. We suggest that particular attention be given to the special needs of new housing areas, of new towns, and of “tough” areas, and to ways of bringing in the unattached. When these revised schemes are submitted to the Minister, we hope that they will be quickly considered in consultation with the Development Council and after approval, returned to the authorities for action to be taken without delay.

 

THE TASK OF THE VOLUNTARY YOUTH ORGANISATIONS

 

164.            The voluntary organisations occupy a proud position in the history of youth work. British youth organisations pioneered new forms of association among the young which were adopted or copied in many parts of the world. Some of the early youth movements achieved remarkable success, particularly among working class boys whose opportunities of dignified and self-respecting group life were severely limited at the time. Many national voluntary youth organisations have modelled themselves upon what these pioneers did or stood for. Here is not the place to write the story of these achievements, but we would emphasise that it is in the work of pioneering into new fields that the voluntary organisations, uniformed or not, have done so much. We hope that this pioneering, of which the nation has every reason to be proud, will continue and that, in the years of expansion which we would like to see for the Youth Service, the national voluntary youth organisations will play a constructive part worthy of their history.

165.            However, two things must be remarked. First, that the intention of the founders of most of the pioneering organisations was to attract all young people between, let us say, eight and eighteen. In the early days sharp divisions into age groups were less insisted upon than they are now.  Second, that the pioneering movements achieved their greatest success among children of school age. For example, boys between ten and fifteen were the basis of the success of the Boy Scouts from the very beginning, and remain so. Few of the pioneering organisations were so successful with adolescents, except those specially formed for them or less exacting over terms of membership.

166.            Their success with children of school age has stamped many of the national organisations as juvenile in character and appeal. We think therefore that they must themselves, in the light of their own good history, examine more closely than they may have done so far what their role is and whether or in what new ways they might cater for those who fall for the most part in the 14—20 age range. They should ask themselves whether their hopes for work among adolescents do not demand some new thinking on the whole problem. The success of cadet movements during the war and immediate post-war periods, though susceptible of various explanations, suggests that there is a role for youth movements which aim solely at adolescents. The greater the contribution that voluntary organisations can make to the needs of the age range for which the Youth Service exists, the more real the partnership insisted upon by the Act and the early circulars.

167.            The body for promoting the interests of the voluntary organisations, and their proper spokesman at the national level, is the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations. We hope that the Conference will be active in promoting ever closer co-operation between its member organisations, in stimulating new approaches to youth work, in making the results of successful experiments widely known and in fostering new ventures. We expect the Conference to work in the closest collaboration with the Development Council to strengthen and raise the standards of the voluntary partners in the Youth Service.

168.            As well as the members of the Standing Conference and their affiliated units, there are independent voluntary bodies and groups of many kinds.  They provide that variety of approach and diversity of purpose which we have recommended as desirable in the Youth Service. It is important that they should not fall below the general standards in cither the quality of their leadership or their physical provision. Moreover, whilst preserving their independence of outlook, they should recognise their function within the bigger framework of the Youth Service as a whole and be willing to co-operate in training schemes and the interchange of ideas.

 

THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE

 

169.            Confusion has arisen from the assumption that “voluntaryism” can only be found in organisations specifically designated as voluntary. The terms “statutory” and “voluntary” have acquired meanings which take no account of elements common to both. A national voluntary body, for instance, may be partially staffed by professionals whose salaries are aided from public funds; on the other hand, the voluntary principle can be seen at work in the local education authorities, in their Youth Service no less than in their whole committee system.

170.            We believe it is essential to develop the voluntary principle at every level of activity. It is in the field that it is most important. We should like to see a national campaign for more voluntary helpers (see Chapter 9). We wish to emphasise our hope that voluntary help will be used in all clubs and centres run by local education authorities. We should deplore the complete professionalisation of these clubs.

171.            The voluntary principle is not weakened by the payment of out-of-pocket expenses. If this were a more frequent practice, indeed, it might well increase the flow of volunteers who would like to help but who might not be able to afford the extra personal expense involved.

172.            The importance of a good lively management committee to the life of a club hardly needs stressing, but we should like to recommend a new development. We should like to see clubs associated with the life of their neighbourhoods through the creation of supporters’ councils, which would have no direct share in the control or running of the clubs, but would interpret the needs of the clubs to the neighbourhoods and of the neighbourhoods to the clubs. Such a council could associate itself with some of the social activities of the club and draw up panels of willing people who might be called upon for help of every kind. We mean nothing so formal as a “governing body” which meets only occasionally. We are thinking of a lively organisation through which adults could find satisfaction in helping the young and which would begin in the most friendly and unpatronising fashion to build bridges between the generations.

 

THE TASK OF THE FOURTH PARTNER

 

173.            So far we have moved down the structure of the Youth Service and we have not yet encountered a young person except at the receiving end. We see a danger that the Youth Service machinery might become distant from the young people it is meant to serve. The young themselves are quick to detect situations in which organisations built to serve them have become as remote and ineffectual as but not less talkative than Hilaire Belloc’s don. The young must participate. But how? We think it is demonstrable that we do not need their participation in every part of the structure: where that which merely services youth activity is concerned their contribution would be slight and no one would know how to make use of them. Where the living activity in the field is concerned their co-operation, their criticism, their drive, their responsibility, ought to be as real as we and they can make it. We do not believe that this co-operation is sufficiently guaranteed by club and unit committees or youth councils. Committee experience can give admirable training, provided that the committee has a real job within the powers of its members, that its members are encouraged to keep in close touch with public opinion in the club, and that it is regularly called on to give an account of itself to the rest of the club. But club and unit committees on which the young sense that they are given only the pretence of power merely bore them with the tedium of office without giving them a taste of its reality. Similar provisos apply to the work of youth councils: topics of discussion should be within the immediate experience of their members, and their executive tasks should be within their scope. Without this ballast they are apt to agitate for the impossible.

174.            Our recommendations for participation turn on responsibility and leadership. We should like to see more responsibility for activities and programmes turned over to the young wherever this can be made possible, and real and actual charge of things within their compass (or just enough outside it to make them stretch their minds) given to them. The specialist group or self-programming group in which the adult enters as an adviser is an illustration of what we mean. We think for instance that after one or two trial runs young people are capable of initiating and running adventure schemes which are likely to be more probing because they themselves have drawn them up. We believe too that such groups will evolve their own discipline, which they will accept the more readily because it grows out of the needs of real situations.

175.            We see in the ending of national service a fresh opportunity to develop leadership within the club. We have been impressed by the quality of those youth leaders we have met who have themselves graduated through the youth movement, and we believe that full use must now be made of the 18—20 year old members who will no longer be called away for service with the armed forces. They should be encouraged to lead group activities, and given every chance to prove their dependability and usefulness.

176.            One further task we see as peculiarly the province of the fourth partner and that is recruitment. The young speak most cogently to the young, and any approach to the unattached might best be made by club members themselves. Members, having found their own warm club life, are sometimes reluctant to welcome “outsiders”, but we believe that without the missionary work of those already in the clubs we shall fail to bring in the unattached. Responsibility for the unattached rests upon young people just as much as upon adults.

 

INSPECTION AND CO-ORDINATION

 

177.            H.M. Inspectors are the natural link in the field between the Ministry and both local education authorities and voluntary youth organisations.  They are responsible for the inspection of all aided youth groups and may visit unaided groups by invitation. We have studied their admirable reports on youth work. The Inspectorate is in a position to make a special contribution to the raising of standards. On their visits to educational establishments H.M. Inspectors have by tradition a double task, to assess and to advise. Their assessment of the quality of the Service’s achievements over the next ten years will be of particular value both to the Minister and to leaders, management committees and authorities. The Youth Service Development Council will need to follow the rate and quality of progress in the Service, and for this information the Ministry can draw upon the reports and advice of the Inspectorate. We regard as no less vital the other aspect of H.M. Inspector’s task, to give constructive advice and help to leaders.

178.             At present about 150 of HM. Inspectors (including a chief inspector and three staff inspectors) are responsible in varying degrees for the inspection of the Youth Service. None of them is concerned with the Youth Service alone, and it is all to the good that they are thus able to see the Service in relation to the other forms of secondary or further education for which they may be responsible. Is this number enough? We ask those responsible to assure themselves that a sufficient number of inspectors (including staff inspectors) have this work assigned to them and that they are able to give sufficient priority to it, to make certain that the development of the Service over the next ten years is properly assessed and stimulated.

179.            The Development Council will need to keep in close touch with both national voluntary youth organisations and local education authorities if it is to advise the Minister usefully on planning. But just as it is essential and reasonable for the Council or the statutory authorities to consult voluntary organisations in preparing their plans, so a national voluntary youth organisation should present to the Council its plan for expansion or new experiments at the national level, and at the local level should consult the local education authority when it proposes some redisposition or increase in its staffs and services. A working partnership, if one does not exist already, can be evolved locally in a planned expansion, and we hope that co-ordination rather than uniformity will be deliberately sought at every level.

180.            Local education authorities carry the major local responsibility for the Youth Service. But this does not mean that they have to do everything themselves. We believe they should encourage others to contribute where possible. They should be prepared to make available money, accommodation and equipment to voluntary bodies, and grants to individuals to attend courses other than those run by the authorities themselves. They bear the chief responsibility for co-ordinating effort, and they alone can ensure that the necessary close relations are established between those working in the various educational and social services that have to do with young people: teachers, youth leaders, probation officers, social workers and youth employment officers (see Chapter 9).

181.            There is room too for better co-operation at every level between voluntary organisations themselves. This should start with an appreciation of the fact that they have a common aim in giving young people opportunities for development and responsibility. It is necessary that the widest field of choice should be open, and this can be secured only if voluntary organisations look beyond their own immediate interests, and the maintenance of their membership numbers, to what could be achieved by co-operative effort. In particular we would hope to see a development in shared work projects and festivals, in training schemes, in the interchange of ideas which come from experiment, and in a concerted approach to the unattached. Youth organisations should be prepared to co-operate with one another in sharing premises, where this is the most practical and economical means of ensuring the standards of provision which their work and future development require. In the field of public relations a joint approach could be the most effective way of securing a better understanding of the work of the Youth Service.

 

CHAPTER 5: Activities and Facilities

 

182.            It is proper to move from a discussion of the structure of the Service to a consideration of what should be provided in terms both of activities and facilities. Of course, not everything can or should be provided.  Nothing is more boring than the life of the child whose every wish is anticipated and every whim instantly met. An over-solicitous Youth Service could be just as stifling as the too-conscientious mother. The young must have room to breathe. There must be genuine and not contrived opportunities of service for themselves as well as for others.

 

I. ACTIVITIES

 

183.            What the members of youth groups do is shaped by the aims for which they come together. In Chapter 3 we have defined the aims of the Service as association, training and challenge, of the right kind. This description is likely to be accepted by every section of the Service, although organisations will differ in the kinds of association they encourage, in the specific techniques of training and forms of challenge they offer, and in the interpretation they give to “of the right kind”. We go on to consider separately the consequences of each of these three aims, while we recognise their interplay at every stage.

 

1. ASSOCIATION

184.            To encourage young people to come together into groups of their own choosing is the fundamental task of the Service. Their social needs must be met before their needs for training and formal instruction. This does not only mean that their happiness in each other’s society is a necessary condition of further training, although that is true. It means, too, that it is the task of the Service to offer, in its own different environment, social education of the kind that has long been valued in the corporate life of those pursuing formal education in schools, technical colleges and universities. There are many who leave school lonely or estranged, without ever having learnt to live in the company of their fellows; if they do not learn in adolescence, they never will. The coming together of the young with understanding and helpful adults presents opportunities which can be used in different ways, depending on the traditions of the different organisations and clubs. To three in particular we want to call attention.

 

(a) An opportunity for commitment

185.            Group or club membership is in itself a commitment. The burden of the commitment may vary from the very slight financial and human obligations laid on a member of a group largely social, to the far more exacting demands and pledges which must be expected by a member of a uniformed organisation or a church group. The acceptance of even the slightest obligations has its value in an age in which the young are shy of committing themselves and often lack a sense of purpose. A clear purpose which demands loyalty is what many young people are seeking. The demands of loyalty should be related to objects which young people respect and comprehend; what may be real in the context of the public boarding-school may be quite irrelevant to the leisure needs of the young wage-earner. Basically the group should provide ideals as well as activities and a warm and friendly atmosphere in which a young person can feel wanted and understood

186.            Some are too wary or too deeply estranged to accept, at any rate initially, even the slight commitment required by club membership. We should like to see more experiments made to cater for their social needs in the unconstrained way which they appear to seek. We have in mind the coffee bar sited strategically at the sort of place where they tend to congregate, the “drop-in” club where they pay by the evening for what they get, the experimental youth centre or workshop where they can come without registering as members. We would go even further and suggest there is also need for experiment with peripatetic youth workers, not attached directly to any organisation or premises, who would work with existing groups or gangs of young people. Gang loyalties are intense enough in their way; their members are in a sense committed, but to objects often unworthy of their loyalty. We believe that for groups of this kind the first approach has to be purely tentative, and that only by going out to them shall we discover how to gain their confidence, to meet their needs and to make them aware of more genuinely rewarding pursuits.

 

(b) An opportunity for counsel

187.            At school the child is a person, whose progress and behaviour are carefully watched. He is conscious of “counting”, even though he may yet be restive under discipline. Once he gets to work he no longer feels he “counts” in quite the same sense: his problems are neither known nor watched; though glad in himself to escape discipline, he may be resentful of the price he has paid for this, without realising consciously what is the source of his resentment. He may feel that there is no one in his new world to whom he matters. Yet on leaving school he meets many problems – of ethical values, of sex, of adjustment to the world of work. At a later stage he is faced with the problems of marriage and home-making and of full adult responsibility. Only too rarely do young people feel enough confidence in an older and more experienced person to seek advice; parents often prove inadequate or some children are too shy to put to them the difficulties that bear on them most hardly. We believe that the good youth group should try to cater for these needs. We have been impressed by evidence, some of it from abroad, of successful counselling of the young.  We should like to see this idea grow in groups of all kinds. There should be nothing in the structure of any organisation, however firm its discipline and its programme, to prevent the officer or leader from being regarded as the natural counsellor of those he leads. Everything will depend upon the quality of personal relationships between members and leaders, and the amount of time that leaders can find. Counselling is time-consuming and calls not only for understanding, but for knowledge of the individual circumstances of the young person, his home background, his conditions of work and his personal make-up, and leaders may not be able to tackle this single-handed. It follows therefore that if there is to be a development of counselling within the Youth Service many more helpers will be required. It is not essential for these helpers to be involved in arranging activities what is important is that they should be available and that they should get to know the members. The supporters’ councils, which we have suggested in paragraph 172, might enlist such people; and priests, pastors and social workers could be made use of, if they can be related to club life. We have in mind something quite informal; we doubt whether the young would make use of an advice bureau as such.

 

(c) An opportunity for self-determination

188.            Too often it must appear to the young that by joining a club or group they forfeit the opportunity of doing things in the way they like.  Some clubs may well seem to them as concerns in which all basic decisions have been made. Nothing that they can do will have any effect on the way of life of these clubs; their only remedy is to leave them if they do not like them. We value very highly the active participation of the young, and their own leadership of groups which they bring into existence themselves. If this is a good principle, we should admit in the Youth Service the consequences of it. This means in practice that we must not expect every kind of youth work to be tidily patterned through established organisations, and that we should accept, as a proper part of the Service, spontaneous but ephemeral units which may spring up and passionately absorb the energies of their members for two or three years and then fade away as the members grow out of them.

189.            In proposing that such groups should be recognised, we are not suggesting that the principle of self-determination can be applied in a wholesale fashion over the whole field of the Service. Many organisations, clubs and centres are not organised to allow for such spontaneous groups, and their leaders and members have a different approach. But we would urge these sections of the Service, however well established their traditions, to explore continually the present-day needs of their members. They should also keep their techniques and programmes sufficiently responsive to those needs to bring out their members’ powers of leadership, and to enable them to feel conscious that they can have an influence on what they do and how they do it.

EFFECTIVE CONDITIONS FOR ASSOCIATION

190.            Having discussed the opportunities which association can give, we turn now to consider the conditions under which such association can be made effective. We have already said that the basic task of the Youth Service is social and pastoral.  It must therefore provide opportunities for young people of all classes and groups to meet on common ground, to talk and to get to know one another, without necessarily any further obligation. A pleasant social life in places where we feel at home and in which pressures are lifted is a necessity for all. Social clubs cater for those who can afford them; pubs meet the needs of many others; the housewife enjoys this relaxation in the Women’s Institute or Townswomen’s Guild; the student expects to find it in his college union. The young, for whom the Youth Service was brought into existence, are precisely those who cannot create such club-like provision for themselves, though clearly they can and would like to pay for many of its services. Some clubs do indeed provide these. Many, however, still think of them in terms of 1939 or even 1910 – a gymnasium, a table-tennis room, a canteen, a hall in which occasionally to dance. We should like facilities to be thought of, where this is financially possible and where the young contribute themselves, in terms of an approximation to the facilities for social life offered by a college union: good decorations in good colours; modern appearance; a coffee bar rather than a canteen; reading room listening or viewing room; games rooms, and small rooms where self-programming groups can meet. We know that cost rules out this kind of provision immediately for every place; but a general youth centre such as is described here should be provided experimentally in some towns and new housing areas. One county is seeking to do something like this in rural catchment areas by placing a youth club on the same “campus” as the local library, swimming bath, village hall and secondary modern school.

191.            Successful association can be furthered by conditions like these.  They are not essential to it. The street corner will always have its devotees, and there is a kind of footloose group that deliberately prefers the odd, the heterodox rendezvous to the most civilised amenities. Many groups find their companionship in strenuous physical ventures, in canoeing or cycling together, in camping or travelling across Europe by hired lorry. To be a member of a group, living side by side for a period in camp or on an expedition, can be of special value to social development. Experience of the same kind can be gained from residential courses, which many witnesses have praised for the greater impact they make on young people and the opportunities they give for more stimulating and far reaching work. Their value is all the greater if they also give young people a chance of attending a series of progressively more exacting courses over a period of years. Some young people do not find themselves until they have had a chance of getting away from home for a time. Whatever may be thought of the total effect of national service on young men, it did do this for them; it took them away from home and subjected them to many vigorous and some fascinating pursuits under discipline, in parts of Britain and the world they otherwise might never have visited. Many gained immensely from these radically altered ways of life. With the ending of national service, the Youth Service ought to try to replace some at least of these lost opportunities, and this makes the case for residential and venture courses all the stronger.

 

2. TRAINING

192.            We need to define here the sense in which we use the word. It carries suggestions Of instruction, of coaching in specific activities, of standards demonstrably improving over a period of time. In the context of the Youth Service it will include all these, but we want the word to be interpreted liberally enough to include opportunities of any kind that help the young to be better people in ways that may not be easily measurable. We have dealt at such length with association because it is an end in itself as well as a means to other ends which we shall consider later. This does not mean that all forms of association are good. Of some groups it is possible to ask “What have they gained from being together?” and the only answer can be “Nothing”, or, “Nothing good”. But there are groups which are at present disregarded by educational opinion because they obviously will not last or because their aims are thought to be too trivial or too narrow; and yet they may have done something quite indelible for the characters of their members. Such are the ephemeral groups whose case we argued earlier in this chapter; their members know what they want to do, and their adult leader (if they have one at all) is there to enable them to do it

193.            Nor are their aims as trivial as they may appear. The most casual of such groups are the street-football or skiffle-and-washboard groups.  But the jazz clubs often develop a scholarship of their own; and there are plenty of young toughs who will spend intent hours tuning up each other’s motor cycles or overhauling radio or television sets. Even if their craftsmanship remains at the “do it yourself” level, it has a neat, quick competence that commands respect. There are countless cycling, rambling and camping groups or gangs, and there are others whose aims are recognisably serious: naturalist clubs or scientific and semi-scientific societies. Many of these do not seek adult help, and remain unknown to the Youth Service; they are not the less valuable for that. For others their own achievement, their own sense of worth would be heightened if they could secure just that minimum of adult instruction and counselling that would help them to increase their expertise; some have already found this help through the understanding of a Youth Service officer. The Youth Service should be generous enough in spirit to recognise them and, what is more, to promote groups of the kind which may be especially attractive to the over-eighteens. Assistance to them might be all the easier to organise if provision were regularly made for what we have already called self-programming groups. Some will prefer their own independent existence; but it is perfectly feasible for the members of such groups to be also members of those clubs which are able to encourage this hiving-off process, and to be given all the facilities and protection of the club, including meeting place and help in finding expert instruction. For this new growth to be widespread, a radical revision of the conception which some clubs and organisations have of their duties will be needed. Youth leaders themselves often expect to frame the programme for the young, and to coax them into support of activities already decided. If they find that this does not work, they may then allow members to enjoy the purely social activities of the club without strings attached. This too can lead to a dusty boredom. The middle way, to encourage groups of friends to work out their own programme within the shelter of the club, can help to create the new spirit needed. It is clearly possible in club work; it is not out of the question for some at least of the uniformed organisations. This involves a new and critical look at the basic organisation of youth work, to which we shall return later.

194.            With groups like these, association has clearly become more than its own end; it has already become a means of learning, at however humble a level. In any voluntary service of education the social atmosphere must be congenial if there are to be any takers. This applies not only to these informal groups, but it is equally true of the uniformed organisation and the maintained youth centre. It does not only mean that the young will not come if the atmosphere is uncongenial; it means too that the emotional tone of the group has its influence on the process of learning. That is one reason why residential courses, in which a sense of community can be built up over a period of time, are particularly effective in promoting a readiness to learn.

195.            And learning is what the public will look for from the Service as a whole. We want the public to share our sympathy with spontaneous groups and see their place in the Service, but we do not suggest the Service should consist of nothing else. The programmes of established organisations and clubs should be sensitive to the present-day needs of their members, but this does not mean lowered standards or a less exacting sense of craftsmanship. Even in the traditional club the leader can make it a part of his job to enable the young to do what they want; he will also hope to bring them to an enjoyment of what they might not have thought of but for him. Advance seems to us desirable on the following three fronts.

(a) Physical recreation

196.            There are powerful reasons why provision for physical recreation should be improved. First, because sports and physical activities generally are a major leisure-time interest in the lives of the adolescent boy and girl. Secondly, because this interest is unrelated to academic ability or manual skill: it cuts across the stratification of society, the incidental effects of which we have deplored. Thirdly, because there is evidence that work and their present leisure activities fail to satisfy the increased physical energies of many young people. Physical education at school has become much more challenging and more comprehensive in scope than it used to be; yet planned physical education stops as soon as young people leave school.

197.            Apart from the organised team games, there is a whole range of activities which are valuable for their informality and the opportunity they give for social mixing and their appeal to girls, who are more difficult to cater for in this field. Among them are badminton, camping, canoeing, dancing, fencing, golf, judo, motor-cycling, mountaineering, pot-holing, rambling, riding, rowing, sailing, skating, ski-ing, swimming, tennis and water ski-ing. The fact that some of these were until recently beyond the means of the majority must not obscure the fact that they could now be made available to substantial numbers of wage earners

198.            We recommend the practical encouragement of these activities, particularly in the following ways:

(i)    by making better facilities available (see paragraphs 234—238);

(ii)   by the local education authorities’ being prepared to prime the pump by helping initially with finance, accommodation and loan of equipment;

(iii)  by providing coaching at convenient centres. Young people should be expected to pay something for these activities which, if they are sufficiently attractive, might become self-supporting. The Central Council of Physical Recreation makes a valuable contribution in the whole of this field. Some local education authorities run admirable games and athletics centres;

(iv)  by associating those concerned with sports clubs and specialist groups in the area through representation on local youth advisory committees; and

(v)   by recognising the contribution which can be made both by established sports clubs and by informally organised specialist groups. The help and services of the local education authority should be available to these clubs and groups for their work with young people. A few authorities do already foster specialist groups as a matter of policy, and the results are rewarding. We hope that governing bodies of sport and clubs themselves will encourage the formation of junior sections for young people aged 14—20, whatever their abilities.

 

(b) Other skills and interests

199.            It is easy for youth clubs and organisations to acquire a general philistinism without knowing it. Admiration for physical achievement, love of social life and dancing, impatience with activities in the world which appear precious or have no obvious utilitarian value, can all foster this contempt for, or indifference towards, things of the spirit. There have been some interesting attempts in clubs to break this down—for example, in their music groups, reading circles, discussion and film societies—and we should like to see more of them. Although this is very hard ground to plough in view of the fact that there are almost two cultures in the land –
a “mass media” culture determined by press, radio, television and film, and a minority “culture of the cultivated” – we ought not to accept this as a counsel of defeat or despair. Youth organisations have a role to play here: they are sometimes gifted with a fine sense of history, of religion, and of social morality, and on the other side maintain a creed of physical well-being and mental alertness: but of the area of man’s struggles of the spirit in art, poetry, music or drama they seem quite often unaware, so that their young members grow up ignorant that this too is a realm of human endeavour to which they should be committed. Music, art and crafts now have an established place in the curricula of schools, but as yet too little seems to have been attempted in following up these interests in the clubs. Recent experiments such as Youth Makes Music, and Youth Theatre, are evidence of the latent enthusiasm that exists. We should therefore hope to see, if this Report is accepted and operated, many efforts at providing the young with a cultural apprenticeship. Again, residential courses offer a particular opportunity for this.

200.            Young people are often more aware than adults of the impact of the scientific revolution upon the world in which they live. Though ill-informed about the limitations of scientific knowledge and its inability to satisfy all the needs of the human condition, they believe it is of their world—it is forward-looking, dynamic, expanding. Here is an interest to which they respond spontaneously, and the mechanisms which they enjoy the motor-cycle or the television set, may be the best starting point for some; others may be fired by recent discoveries to take an interest in such subjects as astronomy or electronics. The Youth Service should seize this opportunity and enlist the aid of amateur scientific societies and individual scientists and technicians to promote practical projects.

201.            It would greatly help the growth of all these interests if public libraries, museums and art galleries remained open until 10 p.m. on at least some nights of the week, so that young people might make fuller use of them during their hours of leisure. It would be valuable too if experiments in the informal counselling of young readers in libraries in the evenings could be taken further. Extension of hours may not be possible all at once: the library service in particular is understaffed.[32] But the need should be recognised and experiment fostered in selected areas. There should in any case be close co-operation between the Youth Service and the public library and museum services, so that visits can be arranged and books, records, photographs and specimens lent under suitable safeguards.

 

(c) Preparation for adult life

202.            Young people are greedy for adult status, and some of them anticipate it. A sense of adult responsibility is quite another thing. How far the Youth Service can promote it has been obscured in recent years by the existence of national service, the prospect of which has come down like a shutter between the mind of the adolescent and his adult future. Now that young people will not be called away for service with the armed forces, the question poses itself whether they will find uninterrupted development any easier and assume their responsibilities as adults more readily.

203.            We have indicated some of the difficulties in Chapter 3 – difficulties of communication, the wariness of the young when they scent persuasion, their acute perception of falsity in the man who says what he thinks he ought and not what he lives by. We have also expressed our belief that young people today are fiercely sceptical because their natural idealism is being frustrated. The Youth Service cannot shirk its responsibility to help them in their search for values, values which can inform their lives and give them meaning. This is one of the most difficult tasks the youth leader has to face, because he is conscious that if he touches religion, politics or industrial relations, he lays himself open to criticism, since these are all controversial subjects. We can understand his hesitation and his reasons for caution, but we think this responsibility must be faced. Group discussion, as informal as may be, and individual counselling in terms that are relevant to the young, are the methods we suggest, and we have particular suggestions to make in the following three fields of human conduct.

 

(I) public affairs

204.            We have elsewhere referred to the quality and range of social provision for young people who remain in full-time education. We are conscious that the backbone of student life is the debating society and the political club, which make an important contribution to the students’ general education. Likewise we think that, where members of youth clubs and other youth organisations wish to discuss controversial public issues, they should be given every encouragement and facility. We believe that often political youth organisations might well be able to assist in this task by providing speakers for discussions and debates. In view of young people’s general suspicion of “brainwashing”, it is perhaps best done by the younger generation amongst themselves, and not by older people known to hold allegiance to public and spiritual causes. It would be useful for young people in their own clubs and societies to meet other members of their generation who, while they are probably as critical commentators of the political scene as their contemporaries, are not politically disarmed by defensive cynicism. However, we stress that such activities should grow only out of the expressed interests of the young themselves, and further that we are not suggesting any formal relationship between the political youth organisations and the Youth Service. Whilst we recognise the importance of political youth organisations in a democratic society, we are conscious of the dangers of permitting such organisations to have any call on public funds.

(ii) Employment

205.            There are three types of problem by which the young worker may be perplexed: problems of conduct and industrial ethics; industrial relations; and vocational and educational guidance. For the first, help is most easily given by young adult workers, men and women, who have been through the mill sufficiently recently themselves to know what is most likely to trouble the young. They will be more easily listened to if they are under no suspicion of having any axe to grind. Industrial relations can bewilder young workers because of their ignorance of the purposes and functions of management and trade unions and of the established machinery for settling industrial disputes. Youth clubs can help their members to find out the facts. Leaders need not be nervous of controversy; the really contentious questions are fewer than they think. The most sensible way of treating them is to bring together representatives of both sides of industry for a down-to-earth discussion in the club. Vocational and educational guidance almost always need expert knowledge, and for this the leader can call on the resources of the youth employment office or employment exchange, the college of further education and the education office.

(iii) Preparation for marriage and home-making

206.            As we have pointed out, young people are tending both to stay longer at school and to get married earlier. Witnesses have stressed the increasing importance in these changing circumstances of helping them to make a good home and a happy marriage. It is parents who bear the first responsibility for the sex education of their children and for helping them to have a healthy and purposeful approach to marriage and the running of a home. Nevertheless we think the Youth Service, even if it is not the only available means, should be ready to encourage young people to fit themselves for the range of knowledge, skills and understanding associated with marrying and setting up a home

207.            We have in mind not only advice on personal problems, sex education and preparation for parenthood, but also on budgeting, buying, furnishing and home maintenance. Some of this can be approached through short courses in an area, and we should like to see more of these projects tried out or adequately aided by local education authorities. But there are also problems which only personal and individual discussion can solve. Wise and tactful counselling of the kind we have commended may be of special in this context, and here the leader needs to ask himself whether he is competent to give the particular advice needed or whether it can better be given by marriage guidance counsellors, doctors, clergy and teachers. We believe that one of the most important contributions which the Youth Service can make is through the influence of happy and healthy relationships established between boy and girl in a mixed group. Clubs can be greatly helped in this if they can number among their adult helpers young married couples who themselves are making a success of their life together.

THE PLACE OF ORGANISED INSTRUCTION

208.            The development of skills and interests, or definite educational instruction in certain subjects brings the Youth Service firmly into closer liaison with further education. Because we have encouraged the spontaneous and flexible youth work which leads to self-programming groups it must not be supposed that we should want to call a halt to regular classes for young people, either in special institutes provided for them or through general adult educational facilities or even at their clubs. We hope that these provisions will continue to grow. We simply should not wish to see it made obligatory, as it is at present in some places, to take a course as the price of membership of a club or youth centre. Instead, we hope to find systematic courses springing from more informal youth work, to satisfy those who need more rigorous intellectual training in subjects they have come to love. Part-time leadership – that is of those who teach for part of the week only and work in youth centres for the rest – ought to be particularly effective in drawing the enthusiastic young into evening classes. We should expect part-time teacher-leaders to have more knowledge of facilities available, and more experience in guiding the young towards them, than leaders outside the teaching profession.

 

3. CHALLENGE

209.            The importance we attach to association, the sympathetic encouragement of spontaneous and single interest groups for which we have pleaded, do not mean that we are thinking of a service which makes few demands. We think indeed that the Youth Service must offer opportunities of relaxation for all, but it must as well provide opportunities for as many as possible to find something sufficiently challenging to capture their enthusiasm and to ensure the fullest development of their qualities of mind and body.

210.            Group or club life provides opportunities for challenges of all sorts to the young, who in meeting them satisfy the sense of achievement for which all hunger and which so many have failed to find in school or at work. The challenges may come from within the group to the individual or from outside the group both to the group and to the individual. Some, like team games, will be competitive, but there is no reason why all should be: indeed some of the most arousing challenges to individual achievement come from enterprises which have to be corporately met, as in exploration or mountaineering, for then the individual satisfies his own longing to achieve something worth while by contributing to the group effort. In this way he often secures a better feeling of his worth as an individual than in competition with other members of the group. We are not saying that competition is worthless, but rather that it is common and easy to organise, that it can discourage thekeen but ineffective performer, and that because of it, the value of less spectacular forms of challenge, achievement and recognition is overlooked.

211.            The opportunities for challenge which crop up in the life of the group have a special value for the non-academic boy and girl. Physical adventure has the most obvious appeal. To many of the young their world is a humdrum affair; their lives are tram-lined by the streets and time-tabled by the running of buses and trains. The colourful and the unexpected do not happen to them unless they make it. They can do so by violence, destructiveness or deliberate breaches of accepted public behaviour. Or they can go out of the towns to find it. Scouting and Guiding and kindred movements and, more recently, Outward Bound and Brathay have shown the young a variety of approaches to the object of their search. Some of these schemes have helped young people to find the colourful and unexpected constructively even in an urban environment and in the workaday setting of home and work. Others have taken them to a strange environment and shown them how through strenuous physical effort they can find powers in themselves they had not known. While all these movements use physical adventure as a medium, it would be wrong to assume that the aim is toughness for its own sake; to all of them physical endurance is a means to personal development. Experience suggests that these schemes appeal to the young worker, boy or girl, who has vigour of mind as well as of body; and although they may appeal to a minority only, their value is not lessened thereby. It is more doubtful if they can succeed in attracting the corner-boy and his girl, with all their wariness and suspicion of standards and demands and guidance. Yet we remember humble and scruffy camps on the outskirts of industrial cities which suggest that a hankering for rough living and adventure exists in unexpected quarters; thought should be given to the ways in which the uses of mountain, moor, waterway and sea might be exploited to meet these needs.

212.            Travel can be another means of challenge. We are not thinking of organised tours, where everything is provided, but travel as a form of strenuous adventure. We should like to see a growth in hiking and cycling abroad, the use of youth hostels and rough going by cargo boat. Young people appear to have little stomach for sight-seeing, but they do enjoy a foreign atmosphere, and they can show intense curiosity about differing ways of life and an admirable persistence in ferreting out information. Even sight-seeing can take on meaning, if interest has been aroused by preparatory work in the club or at a residential course. One of the most fruitful forms of travel is to go abroad to do a job of work. Oecumenical and refugee work camps are examples of international co-operation by the spade. So is the scheme promoted by Voluntary Service Overseas.

213.            Most young people seek recognition of their ability to make a significant contribution to society, and many youth groups undertake practical schemes of help to their neighbourhood or to the wider community. Some of these schemes are picturesque and dramatic, and appeal to the imagination of the young, but the true challenge of community service lies less in these fields than in the more humble forms in which need presents itself in workshop or neighbourhood. Youth groups and clubs should make a careful study of the real needs of the community in which they live, before offering their practical help. They are likely to find that the demands on them by the situation are testing ones. Bedpans and drawsheets are not picturesque, old and sick can be demanding, most forms of help sustained to be of any value and they have all the tedium of all its starkness, not by suggesting ready-made schemes so much as by helping them to an awareness of the needs of others and then leaving them decide what they mean to do about it

214.            Challenge is to be found within the club as well as outside, particularly in what we have described earlier as cultural apprenticeship.  The introduction to art, drama and music which has been made at school needs in the club a new and more adult approach. It is not simply a matter of carrying on from where they left off at school. Young people in fact welcome a change of tone. The challenge here should be one of standards and adult outlook.

215.            We have made these few suggestions by way of illustration of one basic point. Challenge is an emotive word that rings hollow unless it involves sustained interest. No response to a challenge will have a lasting effect on the adolescent unless he is prepared to pull his weight in planning, preparation and training for his pursuit, and to study to improve. This is as true of physical ventures, travel and service to be undertaken outside the club as it is of cultural activities inside it. As it is, so many promising enterprises fall flat or fizzle out because they have not been worked out and prepared for in advance. From discussion within the club of activities to be undertaken outside can come, as a by-product, a great gain in power of communication. Talking to the point is one of the most fruitful of club activities, and the planning of combined operations gives the occasion for it. What often baffles the leader’s attempts is the natural instability of young people’s interests and an exasperating casualness which may show itself at times in the best of them. The leader will be helped both by his knowledge of their individual wants and powers and also by skilful and inventive presentation, so that a new idea can be introduced to a group and interest in it kept hot over a period by all the arts of good display. More difficult still is the group that has a taste for boating or cycling or camping in its own rough-and-ready way, but which does not recognise that these pursuits have their discipline and exacting techniques. They may not want to learn from an adult, and may best be helped if they are introduced to someone of their own age who already has the necessary pride of craftsmanship.

216.        To rise successfully to a challenge is a means by which the young can win the sense of status which many of them hanker after. The status of the child is recognised; so is that of the adult; adolescence tends to be thought of as a turbulent interim. To do something well, and particularly to do it well as a member of a group, will help the individual adolescent to win recognition both from his contemporaries within the group and from the larger society outside.

THE UNIT OF YOUTH WORK

217.            These suggestions prompt us to look again at the basic unit of club work. Is the general-purpose club the most suitable unit, or is it – with older teenagers at any rate – the small natural group of friends and contemporaries? We expect a big increase in these groups as national service dies away, and many of them will want to develop in independence. The Service should encourage them, admit them and promote them.  But many will have much to gain if they can function within a larger club, and so will the club itself. Often it is precisely this sort of group which is labelled a clique and skilfully discouraged. Ought not the club to be thought of rather as the centre within which small groups can find their own enthusiasms and from which they can be encouraged and aided to develop into self-programming groups? We believe that re-thinking along these lines may help, not only the club organisations, but also some of the uniformed and other voluntary bodies. Too often what is offered to adolescents in them is an elaborated and slightly more difficult version of what they have already tackled as juniors, and it does not take enough into account their need to attain adult status and recognition.

218.            Each type of club or group, whether for one sex only or mixed, has its purpose and its special value, and we have no intention of proposing a uniform pattern. But we do think it important to emphasise the value of mixed activities in our kind of society. More and more schools and colleges are becoming co-educational, and the working and meeting together of the sexes from childhood is now so much part of the social scene that adolescents do not always take kindly to segregation in their clubs.  Clubs and other groups can be a better preparation for life and for marriage if they reflect the mixed pattern of school and family life. With the ending of national service the clubs will hope to attract the young men of military age previously lost to them; this is precisely the young male group which has already established the pattern of early marriage and which is likely to look askance at the strictly segregated club in the first years of courtship, marriage and home-making.

219.            No report of this kind can hope to lay down programmes of activities or to give birth to new ideas. New modes of youth work spring up from their roots in the field, and in the future it will be for the Youth Service Development Council to appraise these and to make their value known.  Everything suggested in this chapter will somewhere have been tried out. We have only tried to show how group experience can be shaped to achieve certain aims and how, in doing so, it can satisfy the hunger of the young for challenge and adventure and their need to commit themselves, to determine their own group life, and to achieve recognition in their society.

 

II. FACILITIES

1. PREMISES AND EQUIPMENT

220.            In speaking of the activities to be catered for we have implied some of our views on the premises which are required. Before dealing with them more specifically, there are some further general observations we must make. Hitherto much of the work of the Youth Service has been done – and it is creditable that so much has been done well – in surroundings whose dinginess suggests relief work in the thirties. In the crippling absence of funds, determined leadership and a valiant spirit of self-help have taken derelict chapels and schools, even derelict air-raid shelters, warehouses and decayed town mansions, and turned them into places where young people can meet and pursue certain activities; but the range of these has been seriously limited by the unsuitability of the accommodation. For the first generation at least the sense of achievement can outweigh the drabness of boarded windows, improvised partitions, ugly lighting and poor furnishing. We do not under-rate such enterprise, nor seek to remove opportunities for it. But if the service is to achieve what is expected of it there must be a change of approach.

221.            New schools and new housing are setting the standard of physical provision; television too plays a part in accustoming young people to attractive surroundings. Commercial interests recognise this and woo the teenager with plush and chromium. The lesson for the Youth Service, whether voluntary or statutory, is plain. It needs to take account of the worthy desire young people have for a bright and gay background, a desire they express in their personal life by their choice of colourful and unconventional clothes.

222.            Two provisos need to be entered in case our suggestion that more and better facilities are badly needed seems both extravagant and relaxing. We believe that many young people would pay more for better facilities – as they already do in choosing to go to commercial premises; and also that they would be willing themselves to work to make their surroundings come closer to the standards they enjoy. Our argument is not for a simple provision of more, and more expensive, premises; it is primarily an argument for a change of heart among many in or concerned with the Youth Service, for a more liberal attitude towards what is both suitable and possible in physical provision. We do not suggest that Youth Service premises should try to compete with commercial premises in glitter, but that they should be of good design in furnishings and decoration; that they should both reflect the tastes of young people themselves and seek to widen and inform those tastes; and above all that they should be suitable for the purposes and activities of the groups using them

223.            The nature of the Youth Service would preclude us, even if the scale of the subject did not, from attempting to lay down in exact terms what premises should be provided, where they should be situated and how equipped. We can only state in general terms the principles which we think should govern their provision in the emergency period—the next five years.  In planning for the longer term we hope that the Youth Service Development Council will take an active part. We must also record our conviction that it is in this field – the planning and financing of the essential capital expenditure – that the community, represented by the Ministry and the local education authorities as two members of the partnership, must take the lead. To carry through quickly a fairly substantial capital building programme is clearly beyond the financial capabilities of voluntary organisations or young people themselves; local education authorities, on the other hand, can provide premises which may be used by a number of different organisations on different nights.

224.            We therefore regard a generous and imaginative building programme as essential to rehabilitate the Youth Service and to equip it for the expansion that is called for. We should like to see the Architects and Buildings Branch of the Ministry of Education, through its development group, giving attention to the design of premises for youth work, as it does already to the design of school and college buildings. This might mean an increase of staff, and if that were necessary we should recommend it. There is need for research and experiment in the provision of efficient, pleasing but economical buildings for the special purposes of the Youth Service, and not only for the very large unit. The needs of potential users must be studied, and buildings designed to house the type of activities and interests of an evolving Service. There have been some enterprising experiments both in new buildings and in adapting old ones for youth work. We think that information about these should be collected and made available for the guidance of others. The Ministry’s Pamphlet No. 8 (Further Education) contains in its Appendix V a list of accommodation requirements which the Ministry once thought appropriate for the Youth Service; this list might well be brought up to date when the information has been collected.

225.            Important as it is to have enough buildings designed for youth work, it would be wasteful to permit uncontrolled development. Already in some areas schemes for building youth centres are being projected without adequate consultation between all the parties concerned. For the wise use of resources which must necessarily be limited it is essential that local education authorities accept the responsibility for preparing, in consultation with voluntary organisations, development plans for their areas, when reviewing their schemes of further education as we have already recommended. We hope that the first emergency five-year building programmes will be used to experiment with various types of provision, so that the experience gained can be put to good use in the greater building programmes we expect to see planned for the second five-year period.

226.            It has been argued that it is wasteful to provide out of public funds expensive buildings for part-time use only. In answer to this we would point out the extent to which all educational building and much other public building is inevitably used part-time: some of our new schools are occupied for about 30 hours a week in 40 weeks of the year, and much of the university building programme is destined for even less intensive use. All the same we envisage that the dual use of some schools will be a permanent feature of the Youth Service. In the new buildings and the renovations which are entailed by the reorganisation of secondary education the needs of the Youth Service should be allowed for, and the drawbacks and frictions inseparable from shared use should be minimised by planning. At present unsuitable furniture, absence of suitable canteen facilities, storage and lavatories, and the need to take care of children’s equipment and practical work are all too often associated with youth work in school buildings. A quite limited addition to the facilities provided, and recognition given to the need for dual-purpose furniture, would remove most of these disabilities and greatly ease the strain which they impose on the goodwill of both groups of users. We have received contradictory evidence on the attitude of young people to the use of schools for youth work, but we believe that any disinclination to “return to school” can be overcome if the premises are sufficiently attractive and the facilities adequate, and the question would hardly arise if in new schools a separate wing or building providing club facilities could be included in the plans. We believe that there are considerable advantages in this arrangement. It makes for an easy transition in the last year at school, when potential leavers become eligible for club membership. It also sites the club near facilities such as gymnasiums, playing fields and swimming baths which might be shared with the school.

227.             When county colleges become a reality there will be a further and important opportunity for meeting the needs of youth work. We would however, our view that county colleges cannot provide, as has been suggested to us, the core of the Youth Service. Inevitably they will come too late to meet immediate needs; and the areas they serve will be wider than the social areas on which the Service must be based. They will however be most valuable adjuncts; and in planning them special provision should be made for their use at night by clubs and voluntary bodies. Perhaps a start could be made by providing a first instalment for the Youth Service on sites of future county colleges where these are available, planned in such a way as to fit in with the intended lay-out of the college buildings as a whole.

228.            Another way in which the requirements of the Youth Service can be combined with other forms of social investment is by the addition of facilities for youth groups to be integrated with community centres. We are aware of the conflicting bodies of opinion in this matter, and we should like to see experiments with provision that is “insulated but not isolated”.  We recommend this on two grounds first, the economical use of sites, staffing and servicing; second, the desirability of helping the adolescent to pass easily into the world of adult organisations.

229.            We hope to see a number of specially designed youth centres built, particularly in areas such as new towns and housing estates which by their nature are lacking in other available premises. Such buildings can provide unrivalled opportunities for drawing in the unattached and for the formation and meeting of informal groups. Ideally they should contain, in addition to the coffee bar and the larger rooms for dancing and games, a number of small rooms for the use of such groups. In some areas it may be possible to provide youth centres by adapting redundant school buildings or other existing premises: more often, probably. special buildings will in the long run be more economical. Inevitably the provision of youth centres will.be costly, but in one way they are economical: they give an opportunity to make the most effective use of first-class leadership – without which, indeed, their potential can never be achieved.

230.            We should welcome the inclusion of some experimental workshops and studios in the authorities’ building programmes. These facilities need not necessarily be linked with further education establishments or youth organisations. Two types are envisaged: (a) for the use of groups (e.g. boat-building, dramatic) which need a permanent workshop (b) for the use of the adolescent who wants to pursue by himself a hobby or short term interest (e.g. carpentry, sculpture, oil painting) which may involve noise and mess and always needs space for housing equipment. We should expect him to pay for this workship as and when he uses it, but we should not require any formal “membership”. We think such provision might attract certain of the unattached, and that it would in any case meet one need for the increasing number of young people who live in flats and the small but smartly furnished home.

231.            Because of the urgency of providing more and better premises as quickly as possible we have given priority to local authority building; but we hope by this that we shall not be thought to minimise the value of voluntary groups and organisations acquiring, adapting or building their own premises, which may well be on a smaller scale. They should be helped to do this in every possible way. We deal in Chapter 7 with the means of encouraging this by grants and loans

232.            There is one other form of provision we believe important, and that is the residential centre. We have referred to the value of residential courses, and several authorities have shown how a centre can be used efficiently to provide opportunities both for leadership courses and for weekend or longer visits by groups of young people. We recommend that the expansion of residential provision should have immediate attention in development schemes. The provision should be of two kinds: the permanent centre with sufficient accommodation, including a library and rooms for group studies, which can be used for courses of all kinds; and the simpler hostel or base-camp, such as are found in several European countries, suitable for groups of young people for short periods.

233.            Before leaving the question of premises, we must stress again the need for standards to be raised in furniture, lighting, decoration and equipment as well as in the buildings themselves. Floor-coverings and curtains, pictures, flowers and plants, tablecloths and crockery should all be so chosen as to contribute positively to the influence of the centre or club and its power to attract young people. In the long run we believe that they will be willing to pay for the maintenance of a higher standard: in the first place it must be provided by adequate capital grants.

 

2. PROVISION FOR PHYSICAL RECREATION

234.            As we stated earlier in this chapter a major interest of most young people is in those activities which challenge their growing physical powers. At the present time there is a general shortage of facilities for physical recreation, particularly in areas of dense population and the new housing estates. We recommend that a high priority be given to remedying this. All local authorities who have powers under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937, should be encouraged to use them, and we hope that local education authorities, in reviewing their schemes of further education, will consult minor local authorities (and on technical matters the National Playing Fields Association) in order to evolve plans for their areas in which their own provision would form a complementary part. We should also like to see closer relations between the parks and gardens committees of local authorities and the youth committees. Parks committees often work jointly with cemetery committees, and they become dedicated only too easily to the task of keeping people off or under the grass. We should like to see parks committees studying the needs of young people, and their active co-operation enlisted by education committees. Many parks shut early because of the dark for half the year, just at the hour when most people’s leisure time begins. If parks committees could provide some floodlit enclosures, with hard or soft surfaces, for coaching, practice and evening games, they would be giving a service to youth. Changing accommodation would be necessary, and we suggest that authorities might also try providing club-house facilities, because we believe such informal social provision allied with opportunities for physical recreation would appeal to some young people who at present are not touched by the Youth Service. Local authorities in general help by constructing floodlit hard-surface all-weather playing areas in their localities.  Waste ground can often be put to good use in this way.  Another established need is for more facilities for swimming. Large covered baths have obvious advantages, but are also the most expensive. Experiments in small and less expensive open-air baths, including a plastic one, are being made and should be studied.

235.            provision for outdoor activity is only partly a Youth Service problem, and it is reasonable that facilities should be planned for the community as a whole. This brings up the vexed question of the dual use of playing spaces.  We should like to see the needs of youth groups considered by schools, sports clubs and other owners of recreation grounds so that the maximum use of existing facilities can be planned in consultation. Hard tennis courts, all-weather hard pitches, cinder tracks and netball courts are the most easily shared. But no amount of shared use will meet the needs of the situation. An investment in more facilities for physical recreation is imperative, particularly in view of the ending of national service.

236.            Indoor facilities are even scarcer than outdoor ones. Multi-purpose sports halls large enough for such games as badminton and basket ball are the ideal. Alternatively, partly covered practice areas or specially constructed “barns” can meet many needs. The use of existing gymnasiums could well be extended and the facilities of new schools and colleges of further education made available more readily to those youth groups who wish to make proper use of them. All this again is a matter for planning.

237.            We should like to see the same research and enquiry in planning facilities for physical recreation as we have recommended for Youth Service premises. And the results should be made known as soon as possible to all providing bodies. One line of enquiry which might immediately be pursued is the possibility of some facilities at present used by the armed forces becoming available after the ending of national service

238.            There has been an increasing response to adventure courses, and to those outdoor activities that require challenging group work rather than competitive match play. Equipment and accommodation are the chief requirements for developing this type of adventuring, which we believe to be well worthy of encouragement. Central pools of up-to-date equipment for loan should be made available by local education authorities, base-camps provided where necessary, and groups of young people given all reasonable help to carry out adventure schemes. The authorities might also consider providing facilities and equipment initially for those outdoor activities which have hitherto been the prerogative of a minority.[33] This would be a way of introducing young people to a wider range of outdoor interests. In time we should expect them to meet the costs themselves, but unless they have a chance to develop these new enthusiasms through introductory courses they are unlikely to launch out on what would involve them in considerable expenditure at the start.

 

CHAPTER 6: Staffing and Training

 

239.            The Youth Service of tomorrow will want, not only much better facilities and richer opportunities for activities, but a much greater number of workers. At present these workers include full-time leaders; part-time leaders, salaried and voluntary; instructors and helpers, paid and voluntary; and organisers, including the Youth Service and further education organisers employed by local education authorities, and the salaried or honorary officers of voluntary organisations. The Youth Service of tomorrow will need all these elements still, in greater numbers and better trained.

240.            The greater part of this chapter must be given to the long-standing problem of the full-time professional leader. At the very beginning we must state our belief that it is of first importance to establish a satisfactory structure for the profession. We outline a long-term scheme for the recruitment, training and qualification of such leaders and suggest the machinery for negotiating national scales of salary. We propose as well a scheme of emergency training, in order to raise the number of full-time leaders from the present figure of 700 to about 1,300 by 1966. This is the least that is needed to provide a better Service for the larger numbers of young people to be expected in the early ‘sixties. Although we shall give so much space to the problems of the full-time worker, it must be recognised that the part-time paid or voluntary worker will, in our view, always be the main source of staffing.

241.            Before recommending these two schemes we have asked ourselves, why full-time leaders at all? What can they give which cannot be offered as well by voluntary effort? What indeed does the full-time leader do by day, when his club is usually closed? And is it reasonable to attract intelligent men and women into, and to train them for, a profession which is not likely to last them all their lives?

 

PROFESSIONAL YOUTH LEADERS

l. WHY FULL-TIME LEADERS?

242.            We recognise that the body of full-time leaders is not a homogeneous one. It ranges from the warden of the really large youth centre of a local education authority, in effect the principal of a recreational junior evening institute, to the social group-worker, serving behind a coffee bar or getting in touch with small teen-age groups on the street corner or the bomb-sites. Between them comes the leader of the traditional club, usually of some size, urban, and with its own building

243.            The day work of all three involves in varying proportions the three elements of administration, planning and personal contact. For the traditional club leader administration is often a matter of small details; it must be kept to a minimum; but it must be done with scrupulous competence because, in the conditions of isolation in which he usually works, any laxity can be disastrous. He must find time, as must the teacher in school, for the thoughtful planning and preparation of his work; as things are, too many good ideas in club work fail to ripen for lack of time for good husbandry. His personal contacts are exacting and time-absorbing. Much of his time must be spent on individual case-work, meeting and counselling young people and their parents: and material for adolescent studies has to be written up. For the leader of an experimental group, particularly, this latter type of work is the heart of his job. The leader must be, as many already are, in regular touch as well with other leaders and with workers in other types of education, with youth employment officers and employers, with officers of adult organisations such as Rotary and special interest societies, with probation officers and other social workers. He has to find helpers and instructors to guide the club’s activities, and to discuss with them at length the scope of their work and the technique of their approach.  All this makes up a considerable body of social and educational pastoral work, and his conditions of employment must be such that he is free to take it on. To expect a leader to spend hours of the day in cleaning his building, stoking the boiler or raising money to pay his own salary is to misuse him grossly and waste his trained ability.

244.            It is not enough to prove that the full-time leader can justify his day. We must be satisfied too that a corps of such people is for the good of the Service. We are convinced that it is. A youth leader of the kind we are thinking of can bring a trained mind to bear on the needs and problems of the young worker; he can experiment with new techniques and new modes of youth work; and he can give the time to planning and preparation that will enable him to make plain the standards of achievement that can be reached in informal group work. In all three capacities, as a student of adolescence at first hand, as an innovator, and as a demonstrator of the possibilities of the medium, he can have an influence far beyond his own club; and a strong body of such skilled workers is indispensable if the standards of the Service are to be raised.

245.            We are satisfied that the Service needs a sufficient body of full-time leaders, trained for the job, deployed at the right spots, and given conditions of service which make the best use of their professional skill. But just how many?

246.            The number of full-time leaders has dwindled in the last few years; it was 825 in 1953—54; it is about 700 now. Unfortunately the more able are apt to leave the more quickly. We know that a number of authorities have advertised in vain posts for which they know full-time leaders are needed. We have allowed for this in our calculations, and have taken into account the increased number of young people for whom the Service in the ‘sixties will have to cater. As we have noted in Chapter 2, the bulge and the ending of national service will add about a million more young people aged 15—20 in civilian life to the present number of about 31 million; the lowering of the Youth Service age to 14, recommended in Chapter 4, will add roughly another million. Only a proportion of these, of course, will make any call on the Service; but the present proportion of one in three is not good enough, and we believe that a Service in the ways we recommend should do much better than that. Experimental group work with the unattached, which we believe to be one of theneeds of the future, is costly in man-power. On the other hand we cannot assume that an increase in potential membership of youth groups will mean a proportionate increase in the number of full-time leaders. Some clubs can absorb additional members without any increase in full-time staff. We do not doubt that some leaders at present are wastefully employed. If the powers of leadership of the older adolescents are properly used, many groups may not need adult leaders of the traditional kind at all. We recommend provisionally therefore that the present force of 700 should be raised to 1,300 by 1966.[34] This may well be too low a figure for the needs of the strong Service of the future; it is the most we can hope to achieve by an emergency scheme of recruitment and training. The Youth Service Development Council should be in a position to assess the numbers needed after 1966.

247.            We have concluded, as have many others, that full-time youth leadership is a life-long career for only a few. It would not be fair to attract intelligent men and women into this work unless we made it easy for them to move across to other professional work in education or the social services. We have provided for this in our long-term scheme.

 

2. THE LONG TERM SCHEME

 

(i) Recruitment and training

248.            We recommend that in the long run the corps of professional leaders teachers, social workers, shall be recruited from three main categories: and mature persons with a natural gift for leadership. Leaders from the first two categories should be able, after a term of years in the Youth Service, to move across without difficulty to other forms of professional work. Those in the third category will not, without further professional training for which some may not be academically equipped; we recognise, however, their value to the Service. We follow the Jackson Committee in recommending that the qualified teacher should be the main source of recruitment.

249.            We propose four forms of training for the three categories of recruits but, before describing them, we must emphasise the importance of careful selection of students for training. Youth leadership should not be the soft option for the weaker student in any type of training course. It is an exacting job, which demands initiative and other qualities of mind and imagination beyond the ordinary. Those responsible for the selection and guidance of students in teacher training colleges, in courses of social science and in courses providing for mature students, should remind themselves that in this work obtuseness or weakness of fibre can cause incalculable mischief.

 

(a) Three-year teacher training course

 

250.            From 1960 the normal course of teacher training is to be extended to three years. Ten colleges[35] one of which is in Wales, have already responded to the Ministry’s invitation to include training for youth leadership as an option for suitable students in the three-year course. We hope that in time several more colleges, particularly mixed colleges, may be willing to offer this option. we put forward in a later paragraph some comments on the content of Youth leader training which the principals of colleges may care to consider.

 

(b) Courses for social workers

251.            We have read with interest the recommendations of the Younghusband Report[36] on the future pattern of training of social workers. One of these recommendations is that those aiming at the highest forms of qualification will continue, as at present, to take a university course leading to a degree, diploma or certificate in social science and followed by a year’s course of professional training; these courses involve three to four years of full-time study and practice. Another recommendation is for the establishment of a National Staff College, and we are interested to see that a particular function of the College will be to pioneer training in group work and community organisation, for which no proper facilities yet exist in this country. Pioneering in this field would in time influence the content of professional training courses in universities; and we hope that in years ahead students interested in social group work with adolescents will be offered particular opportunities for preparing themselves for this work as a possible option in university professional courses. We realise that these hopes are contingent on the implementation of the Younghusband Report; but the possibility is of such importance for the Youth Service that we feel bound to put it forward for consideration now.

 

(c) Three-month courses for teachers, social workers and others professionally employed

252.            We suggest that three-month “transfer” courses in youth leadership should be offered, if possible at a single centre, for persons with good academic or professional qualifications. These would include teachers with no previous qualification in youth leadership, persons holding a degree or diploma in social science and other university graduates and people with professional qualifications recognised as suitable. A course of this kind is already offered to (but rarely taken up by) qualified teachers at Westhill Training College, Birmingham. We hope that in future this course may attract, among other teachers, some who have qualified at one or other of those technical teacher training colleges that offer one-year courses for mature students intending to teach subjects of general education in technical colleges.

253.            We recommend that Westhill Training College should be invited to provide as well a course of the same length and similar content for social workers and others with the qualifications we have mentioned.

 

(d) Courses for mature students

254.            There are at present two courses in youth leadership which are “recognised” in that the Ministry award grants for students accepted for them. One is a one-year course at University College, Swansea, in Youth leadership and organisation, leading to a college diploma in these subjects. The other is a two-year course at Westhill Training College leading to a certificate in Youth Service awarded by the Institute of Education of the University of Birmingham; the first year of the course, which is a year of general education, may be remitted for those with suitable professional and academic qualifications.

255.            The two-year Westhill course seems to us to be the right medium of training of the mature student who has shown that he is a “natural” for youth leadership but has no other professional qualifications and may be unable to obtain any. Westhill and Swansea seem also the right places to offer one year of training in youth leadership to the person whose academic or professional qualifications make a two-year course unnecessary but are not sufficient to make him acceptable for a three-month course.  We recommend that the Development Council should be asked to advise whether or not in the long-term scheme Westhill should be the main centre of training for mature students and should be invited to expand its intake accordingly.

256.            For those trained in the first three of these four methods there is an obvious way out when their time comes to move on or across to other forms of professional work. Some of the mature students may find an opportunity for a new career in teaching in colleges of further education especially when county college attendance becomes compulsory. Others will have neither the wish nor the opportunity to move on. Yet among youth leaders now in the Service there are men and women of such vitality, richness of personality and natural flair for the work that we are convinced that room must be found in the profession for this sort of leader who has little hope of transferring to an alternative career

257.            We have said already that the present number of professional leaders should be increased to 1,300 by 1966, by what methods we will explain later. The four types of course should keep the establishment at that figure and allow for any necessary expansion. If we assume, as we do, that most professional leaders should give only a few years to this type of work, we must accept it as likely that from 10 per cent to 15 per cent will be leaving the profession every year and that an equivalent proportion of new leaders must be recruited. This suggests that at least 150 new leaders will be needed each year after 1966. We expect that about 100 of these might come from the teacher training colleges, and the bulk of the remainder from the three-month and the two-year or one-year courses at Westhill and Swansea. We estimate that 40 students at most could be expected each year from the different types of course at Westhill. The majority of these are likely to be students taking the two-year course. We also estimate that the annual output from Swansea is not likely to exceed 20.

258.            We have said that we regard the qualified teacher as the main source of recruitment. We do not believe that teachers necessarily make good youth leaders. We do believe that among them are more than enough good potential leaders for the modest numbers required by the Service. In the later 1960’s the annual output of trained teachers of all kinds is expected to be over 18,000; we are asking that between 100 and 120 of these can be spared each year for full-time leadership. There are already, as we will show later in this chapter, a total of between 4,000 and 5,000 Others who hold part-time posts in the Youth Service; even if this number is increased in the late 1960’s, we do not think that we are making an extravagant call on the expanding teaching profession, which in 1958 already numbered over 256,000 members in maintained and assisted schools. A teacher who has spent some years full-time or part-time in the Youth Service is likely to be all the more valuable as a member of a secondary school staff on his return to full-time work in schools. As interest in social education grows, as the schools become more conscious of their social purpose, it may be that schools will recognise increasingly what an asset it is to have on the staff men and women with special experience in the handling of the adolescent and skillful at establishing good personal relations with him. We hope therefore that successful experience in the Youth Service will count to the credit of teachers seeking promotion after their return to secondary school work. Later, we should expect such experience to rank as a major qualification for posts in county colleges.

 

(ii) Content of training

 

259.            If the Service of the future is to lean so heavily on the qualified teacher, the quality of the training in youth leadership to be included in the three-year teacher training courses must be such as to carry complete conviction with local education authorities and other employing bodies. The colleges are already engaged in the strenuous exercise of planning their new three-year courses. We are anxious not to trespass on the proper functions of the individual colleges which propose to include youth leader training in their courses. We feel, however, that these colleges may be glad to take into account certain points which have influenced our own thinking.  Training in youth leadership can be closely bound up with the normal course of training for teaching in secondary schools. Certain elements are common to both types of professional work. Such, for example, are adolescent psychology, problems of personal relationships, the transition from school to work, the youth employment service, adolescent physiology, and health and sex education. Even within this field there may be topics which may be of special interest to the student who is training for youth leadership as well as teaching: the wider problems of preparation for marriage, group behaviour and the principles of group work, personal relationships of the young worker are examples. It may be possible to allow the student training for youth work to give a special emphasis to such topics, perhaps through guided individual reading and study. In curriculum courses, particularly in those concerned with art and crafts, music and physical education, students training for youth work may be given opportunity to concentrate particularly on the recreative possibilities of their subjects—in physical education, for example, on outdoor ventures, on light-weight camping, boating and canoeing.

260.            But there will inevitably be sections of the work, both theoretical and practical, which must be a major concern for students training for youth work and which will stand only on the margin of interest for those training solely for teaching. In his theoretical studies the student training for youth work will need to consider the history, aims and organisation of the Youth Service as a part of further education, and the techniques of club work and club administration. He will have a special interest too in the structure of industry and in apprenticeship and industrial training. His practical work will, we hope, include regular experience in local group leadership under supervision, with opportunities for real responsibility, as well as visits of observation to different kinds of youth group. Adequate club-practice under guidance seems to us one of the most vital elements of his training.

261.            We hope too that training of these small groups of students will be the special concern of a member of the college staff with a considerable experience of youth work and an understanding of its possibilities. He will, we hope, see that professional training is not narrowly interpreted. The Youth Service, like teaching, needs men and women who in their training have had the chance to develop their personal resources and interests to the full, and who are equipped to share with young people their own enjoyment of the good things of life

262.            We have no comments to offer on the content of training for social group-work, for the three-month “transfer” courses or for the courses for mature students. The first is a matter for the universities, the other courses are for the colleges concerned.

 

(iii) Schemes of training undertaken by voluntary organisations

 

263.            For a number of years national voluntary organisations have been running full-time or part-time schemes of training for professional youth leaders. We recommend that any voluntary organisation that wishes to do so should submit its scheme to the Minister, who should obtain the advice of the Development Council before recognising it. Before recommending the Minister to recognise a scheme the Council may wish to suggest modifications, to ensure that common standards are observed, and that all contain agreed common subjects of study. We do not think that these modifications need detract from the studies essential to the aims and methods of particular organisations. Once recognised, a scheme will take its place in the long-term pattern of professional training and students who have completed a course satisfactorily will be recognised by the Minister as qualified youth leaders.

 

(iv) Grants

 

264.            Students training for youth work at teacher training colleges will be covered by the existing arrangements for the training of teachers. At Westhill the present position is that students taking the full two-year course may apply to their local education authorities for grant towards the first year, which is a course of general education. Those taking the second year (including those whose qualifications entitle them to remission of the first year) are eligible for grants awarded by the Ministry, as are the one-year students at Swansea; these grants are calculated at the same rate as for students at teacher training colleges. We recommend that the Ministry should increase the number of grants. Teachers taking a three-month course at Westhill are seconded by their local education authorities on full salary. Social workers with a social science degree attending the similar three-month courses that We have suggested at Westhill will be in a different category, and we recommend that the Ministry make special grants for these students. Students attending professional courses for social workers provided by universities will be able, as now, to apply to their local education authorities for grants under the Regulations for Scholarships and Other Benefits

 

3. THE EMERGENCY SCHEME

(i) Recruitment and training

265.            The first students to be trained for youth work in three-year teacher courses will not be leaving the colleges till 1963. The colleges have already been advised by the Ministry that after leaving college such students should at least complete their probation and establish themselves the leaching profession before transferring to full-time posts in the Youth Service; they might in the meantime do part-time work in youth clubs. We fully agree with this advice. Its effect will be that not until 1966 will the first full-time leaders from this source be available. It may be even longer before any recruits trained for social group work with adolescents emerge from the university professional courses. To meet the immediate needs we have only the resources of Westhill and University college, Swansea. We have already estimated that even after expansion the annual output from the different courses at Westhill will be 40 at most. We understand that the Swansea course could at most add another 20. We ignore for the present the full-time leaders to be trained by the voluntary organisations, whose status we have recommended for consideration by the Minister on the advice of the Development Council.

266.            A total of 60 leaders a year at most is far short of the needs of the next six years. We have said already that to keep pace with the expansion of the Service the number of leaders should be increased from 700 to 1,300 by 1966. We have to allow too for the normal heavy wastage in this profession. We conclude that in the five-year period from 1961 to 1966 a number of between 150 and 200 new leaders will be needed each year.  We have considered various possible ways of training the additional leaders needed who cannot find places at Westhill or Swansea. We have decided that the right course is to call for the opening of an emergency training college offering a one-year course for men and women in youth leadership.  The college should open not later than September, 1961, and earlier if possible; it should be able to offer 90 places at least in the first year, rising to 140 in the later years of the five-year period.

267.            We ask the Ministry to show the same initiative over this as they did on a much larger scale in their handling of the emergency training scheme for teachers in the years after the war. In those years 55 emergency colleges for teachers were opened; we are asking only for one.

268.            We suggest as the most likely centre for the course a college for the training of teachers which has become redundant* We understand that there may be at least two of these in suitable areas. We urge the Ministry to consult with the local education authorities concerned, in the hope that one of them will be willing to run a college for a period of five years, after which it may revert to other educational purposes. There are other possibilities such as were exploited under the emergency training for teachers: an hotel or a redundant Army or R.A.F. hutted camp might lend itself for conversion. We must leave it to the Ministry to work out the financial arrangements. They have as a model the arrangements that governed the emergency training scheme for teachers

269.            We would not suggest this scheme if we saw an alternative. We are keenly conscious that it goes against our own declared conviction that training for youth leadership should qualify leaders for easy transfer to other forms of professional work. We are now suggesting that hundreds of men and women should be invited to undertake a course which qualifies them for youth leadership and nothing else. Some of those attracted to the course may already have professional qualifications. Others may prove suitable for further training for professions such as the youth employment service. Others may find that, by the time they wish to transfer from youth leadership, the county college will have become a reality and that they may. after further training, find a useful career in that field. We hope that any emergency trained youth leaders will receive sympathetic and generous treatment from local education authorities if, after a period of full-time leadership, they apply for grant-aid to enable them to train for other professional work

270.            Nor would we put the scheme forward if we saw no reasonable chance of attracting the number of students needed. We are not blind to the formidable difficulties. An intake of 150—200 a year is a large figure in comparison with the present body of professional leaders and the present trickle of recruits. We recognise that no attempt at recruitment of emergency students on the scale we suggest will have the faintest chance of success unless the Ministry first make plain their intentions on long-term training, qualification, and scales of salary. The first we have already dealt with; our suggestions on the second and third are set out later in this chapter.

271.            Provided that a reasonable future for the profession is assured, we do not feel that our demands are greater than can be met by the possible sources of recruitment. We look principally to men and women now in the Service, who have already shown a gift for the work in part-time leadership. Many of these will be working in industry, where there will be for some years a movement of workers from declining industries to those which are developing. We think that a number of able and intelligent men and women so affected may, at the point when they are preparing to move, have their interest caught by the possibility of a period of professional experience outside industry and in a field that they already know. A few teachers, even at this period of strain on the schools, and some social workers may be attracted by the brightening prospects of the profession. So too many young men and women leaving the universities and others leaving the armed forces in the prime of life.

272.            We urge the Ministry to give good publicity to the scheme and to make it known through the normal employment services. Successful recruitment will depend a lot on personal contact, and we hope that employers’ associations, the churches, voluntary organisations and the officers of local education authorities will do all they can to bring the opportunities to the notice of likely recruits.

 

(ii) The content of training

 

273.            We have with diffidence commented on the possible forms that training for youth work might take in the three-year training course. We are ready, however, to offer positive suggestions for the training of youth leaders in an emergency college which does not yet exist, since we are naturally anxious to see such a new beginning animated by the spirit of this Report. We see the emergency course as doing three jobs. The first is the professional and specialist job of teaching the techniques of youth leadership and of providing practical experience in youth work.  The second is to offer wider studies of man and society, particularly those which will enable the student to avoid a stereotyped psychological patter about youth which he mistakes for knowledge of the young. The third is the enrichment of the individual student through background studies and the acquisition of new skills. These are valuable in themselves and will add to the stature of the new leader: they should also enable him to offer greater opportunities to the young. Appendix 11 contains some suggestions for an emergency training college syllabus.


4. QUALIFICATION

 

274.            We consider that all leaders trained in recognised courses of all kinds should rank equally for recognition as qualified youth leaders.

275.            Students who have successfully completed a course of teacher-training are recommended to the Minister by the appropriate Area Training organisation for recognition as qualified teachers. We imagine that those whose course has included training for youth work will have their examination certificate endorsed to that effect. We recommend that the Minister should invite the appropriate Area Training Organisations to undertake the responsibility for supervising all other recognised courses of training for youth leadership, and for recommending students who have successfully completed the course for recognition by the Minister as qualified leaders.

276.            There remains the difficult problem of full-time youth leaders now in post, some of whom have given years of excellent service to young people. We recommend that those who have completed five years of full-time service as youth leaders to the satisfaction of the local education authority or authorities in whose area they have served, should be recommended to the Minister by the local education authority, in whose area they are now serving, for recognition as qualified by experience. This is not a form of qualification which should be allowed to continue indefinitely, and we therefore suggest that the Minister should appoint a day after which no new entrant to full-time youth leadership shall be able to claim qualification by experience alone. Before appointing a day the Minister may wish to give the national voluntary organisations time to submit their own schemes of training for approval by him on the advice of the Development Council in the way we have already suggested.

277.            We hope that leaders who have qualified by experience alone will be encouraged to undertake some form of part-time training. Nor do we regard them as exempt from our general principle that youth leadership is a life-long career for only a few. We think that in recommending experienced leaders for recognition as qualified leaders the opportunity should be taken to review their engagement, and that thereafter their engagement should be subject to periodic review; indeed we think it should be considered whether such periodic reviews should not be extended to all full-time appointments in the Youth Service.

278.            We hope that it may be possible to consider the first year of full-time service of every qualified leader as a year of probation. During that year he should be under the supervision of a responsible officer of the authority, normally the Youth Service or further education organiser. It also seemsdesirable that every leader on probation should be placed for a period if only for a month, in a club where he can work under an experienced leader.

 

5. SCALES OF SALARIES

 

279.            In the preceding sections we have provided for a recognised system of qualification, in the long run by training only, for the time being by training or experience. Once this is assured the next step will be the negotiation of agreed scales of salaries for qualified leaders. We suggest that the Minister should appoint a committee to negotiate scales of salaries; it should be representative of statutory and voluntary employing bodies and of leaders employed by both types of body. A rough parallel is the existing Committee on Scales of Salaries for the Teaching Staff of Training Colleges (the Pelham Committee). This is not a statutory Committee as is the Burnham Committee, but it is appointed by the Minister and submits recommended scales for his approval; its constitution provides for an authorities’ and governors’ panel, representative of the associations of local education authorities and of voluntary bodies, and a staff panel, representative of teachers in training colleges and university departments of education.

280.            A Committee on Scales of Salaries for Qualified Youth Leaders should have a similar constitution: an “employers” panel, representative of local education authorities and voluntary employing bodies, and a “staff” panel, representative of leaders in the service of local education authorities and of voluntary employing bodies. Representation of authorities on the employees’ panel is plain sailing. Representation on the staff panel of leaders employed by authorities is not so easy: there is a newly-formed National Association of Local Education Authority Youth Leaders, but it is not yet fully representative. We hope it will quickly become so and will be empowered to negotiate on behalf of its members.

281.            The real problem is the representation of voluntary employing bodies and of leaders in their service. Leaders in voluntary clubs are employed sometimes by the local education authority, more often by the management committees of their clubs. They are not employed by the national voluntary organisations themselves. Representation of leaders employed by voluntary bodies is even more difficult. The existing organisations of voluntary leaders (for example, the Boys’ Club Leaders Association and the National Association of Youth Leaders and Organisers) are far from fully representative. This is a problem for the voluntary organisations themselves and perhaps for their Standing Conference. It is possible that the few organisations concerned with the club method may be able to obtain a mandate from the management committees of clubs affiliated to them to negotiate on their behalf; and that the voluntary leaders may be encouraged by their own organisations, and by the prospect of this negotiating committee, to organise themselves into one or more associations fully representative and with rights of negotiation.

282.            But this will take time. Meanwhile we suggest that the Minister should appoint a negotiating committee as soon as the National Association of Local Education Authority Youth Leaders is in a position to speak for the whole body of leaders in the employment of authorities. The committee would thus in the first stage be representative only of the authorities and their staff; places would be reserved for representatives of voluntary employing bodies and of leaders in their service. which they would take up as soon as they had organised themselves. There are also one or two voluntary organisations which, because of their own internal salary structure, would never be able to accept automatically an agreed national scale of salaries, but would be willing to give an undertaking to pay comparable salaries. We suggest that they should be represented by “observers” if they wish

283.            As we have suggested a negotiating committee, it would not be proper for us to make any recommendations on scales of salary. It will be for the committee to decide what the scales will be, and to whom they will apply, but we must assume that they will be applicable to leaders qualified by whatever means; and it will be for the committee to consider whether additional increments should be allowed for each year of full-time training. There may however be a period during which national agreed scales will apply Only to qualified leaders in the employ of local education authorities. During this period we urge local education authorities to make it a condition of grant-aid to voluntary clubs that the salaries of full-time leaders shall be in accordance with the scales. This is less ruthless than it sounds, because at the same time we ask authorities to be generous in grant-aid to such clubs if they are clearly unable to meet the increased cost themselves. Indeed, as we shall show in the next chapter, we commend the existing practice of those authorities who, where they are satisfied that a full-time appointment is justified, are prepared to pay up to 100 per cent. of the cost of the leader’s salary. Even when the voluntary employing bodies and the leaders in their service are at length represented on the negotiating body, there will still be many independent clubs affiliated to no national organisation, and we recommend authorities who aid such clubs always to make it a condition of grant that the salary of a qualified leader shall be in accordance with the national scale.

284.            We expect that the negotiating committee will recognise the principle of equal pay for men and women.

285.            Superannuation will be another matter for the negotiating committee. The present position is that a youth leader employed full-time by a local education authority or a voluntary body in respect of whose expenditure grant is paid by the Minister or an authority, can be subject to the Teachers (Superannuation) Acts by virtue of sections 1 (1) (f) and 1 (2) (c) of the Act of 1945. In practice, the full-time service of a youth leader employed by a local education authority is automatically approved as contributory service by the Minister, if contributions are collected by the authority under the Teachers (Superannuation) Acts. If contributions are not collected, then the youth leader will automatically be subject to the local government superannuation schemes. The superannuation rights of a youth leader employed by an authority are therefore completely safeguarded. A difficulty might, however, arise in the case of a youth leader employed by a voluntary body which might not ask the Minister to approve his service for the purpose of superannuation under section 1 (l) (f).  The question whether a youth leader is a qualified teacher or not doesnot arise. It will therefore be for the negotiating committee to consider whether these provisions are sufficient or whether there is need for an independent superannuation scheme as defined in section 3 (5) of the 1945 Act.

 

PART-TIME LEADERS (PAID AND VOLUNTARY)

 

286.            The space we have given to the Professional youth leader must not obscure the fact that the great majority of leaders in the country are part-timers. The typical British youth club is open two or three nights a week, not six, and such clubs are led by men and women most of whom do it voluntarily; the Service could not exist without them. With them must be counted leaders and officers of groups Other than clubs: scouters, guiders and cadet force and brigade officers. It has not been possible for us to get exact numbers, but there are probably tens of thousands. There will need to be many more of them yet, if the increased numbers of adolescents in the 1960s are to be properly served.

287.            Among the part-time leaders of groups of all sorts are about 4,600 club leaders paid by local education authorities. A few of these appointments are frankly makeshift; the authority or voluntary body has been unable to find anybody to do the job voluntarily or any full-time professional leader of the kind the post really justifies. We see little merit in these makeshifts, and the practice is likely to discourage genuine voluntary effort. Some posts, however, while they do not warrant a full-time appointment, need a part-time leader with professional experience of working with adolescents and professional understanding of their needs.  Many of them are filled by qualified teachers, giving a third session of their day two or three times a week to informal work with young people instead of to the often better-paid work in evening institutes. Such teachers often find that their contact with their pupils by day is all the better for the personal relationships they can establish with older adolescents in their clubs. We hope that, where such appointments are justified by genuine need, the pay will match the quality of the job. It is still possible to find a qualified teacher leading a club part-time whose nightly honorarium is barely half the fee of the evening institute instructor who comes to take his physical education class; there is no doubt which has the more exacting responsibility. A few authorities have made a of appointing teachers specifically to spend half their time in schools and half in club leadership. We would plead for an immediate and substantial increase in the number of these appointments, did we not know how great will be the strain on the teaching body for the next six years, but we hope that some increase can be made and that after 1966 many more authorities may find it possible to make half-time appointments of this kind

288.            But teacher-training and the good academic background of many part-time leaders are not enough to make the best of their powers of leadership. Part-time leaders, both paid and voluntary, need training as well in the purposes and techniques of youth leadership. One of the best sorts of training is training on the job under close supervision. This is particularly appropriate to the qualified teacher who is about to take up a part-time leader’s post for the first time; we hope that, wherever possible, he will be placed to work for a month or so under an experienced full-time leader before moving on to his own club.

289.            In addition it should be the responsibility of authorities and voluntary associations to organise schemes of part-time training for part-time leaders. In some areas painfully little is provided. Other areas are very active, but we believe that in some there are too many different agencies offering too many courses at much the same level for the same sort of clientele, with the result that all are undersubscribed and that there is no opportunity for progress from the basic to more advanced training. This can only be solved by close co-operation between authorities and voluntary associations. There is no room for demarcation disputes. Clearly some organisations will need to train their own members in their own aims and techniques. We want them as well to be brought into the planning of schemes of training for the Youth Service in their area as well as for their own organisations. We have had evidence of well co-ordinated schemes of training between different authorities in a wide area, and between authorities and the voluntary organisations within their boundaries. Some have taken the form of nine-month part-time courses, with evening sessions once a week held at different points which can be easily reached, and with occasional residential week-ends at which all the leaders can come together for concentrated training. These are admirable developments, and we particularly welcome the interest which some university institutes of education and extra-mural departments, who are well-placed for bringing the various interests together, have shown in sponsoring area schemes of the kind

290.            A deal of effective training can be given on the job in the course of pastoral visits by Youth Service officers and officers of voluntary organisations. Particularly in rural areas these visits may be the most effective way of improving club standards. At the end of this chapter we shall have more to say on the importance of team-work in this field.

 

INSTRUCTORS AND HELPERS

 

291.            Youth work has always relied heavily on the willingness of adults who have a special skill or enthusiasm of their own to share it with the young. Some with no specific skills but with warmth of heart and a sense of fun, have still much to give to club life. In fact, there are many who would go so far as to say that at the operational level, the Youth Service will stand or fall by the willingness of the normal honest-to-goodness adult who comes along to lend a hand regularly, and we would emphasise “regularly”, whether as voluntary leader, honorary treasurer, instructor, counsellor or just one of those indispensable adults who fulfil that vital function of being on the spot. At the moment, few adults are aware that the basic needs of the younger generation are simply friendship and understanding, and in this respect the adult volunteer can achieve wonders merely by his own personal integrity and interest. Even with the highest qualified leadership, it is often only the personality and example of the leader that will see him through. If the Youth Service of the future is to generate, as we hope, a much greater demand for activity in the club, it will need many more voluntary helpers. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme has brought to light a number of hitherto unrealised sources. Club should look too to the adult societies in their area, the choral society, the camera club or the theatre group. Sports clubs and associations might find coaches and activity leaders who would help to organise physical recreation on the floodlit playing areas in parks and on waste ground that we hope to see made available. Classes in evening institutes Contain many students, men and women, with considerable skill in their crafts, who have never come to help in clubs only because they have never been asked; this may be another possible source of help

292.            Some club activities demand skilled instruction of a kind that has to be paid for. Sometimes the club pays. Many authorities are willing to provide paid instructors, often through the evening institute, where numbers and the type of activity justify. We believe that all authorities ought to take on this responsibility and we ask them to show a reasonable flexibility in meeting the clubs’ requests. It sometimes happens that authorities, particularly where the instructors are provided by evening institutes, expect a size of class which is not natural to club life and which can only be maintained by press-ganging, or by playing on the loyalties of club members. We hope that authorities will be liberal in their interpretation of what is the natural size and the natural length of life of a club class, and of what type of activity is educative for the young. It is unfortunate, for example, that often the only types of dancing which are regarded as educational enough to warrant a paid instructor are those which are obsolete. The length of life of a club class need not be that of a school term or an evening institute session; there is room for intensive courses of six or eight weeks in which the leader or one of his helpers is a member of the class and is prepared to carry on when the instructor goes. And we can see a case for peripatetic instructors able to lend their skill to clubs as the demand arises.

293.             We hope that helpers and instructors can be attracted to the training courses arranged for part-time leaders. They too need to be trained in the aims of youth work and its techniques, and many of them will be the potential part-time leaders of the future. Those, whether paid or voluntary, who are helping young people to master a particular skill may themselves need refreshment in their craft, and this sort of training can best be provided, not directly through the Youth Service, but, for example, by the local school of art or the women’s department of the technical college. We hope that those concerned with physical recreation will benefit from the coaching schemes offered through the Central Council of Physical Recreation and the sports associations.

 

ORGANISERS

 

294.            We have left to the last the organisers and officers in the service of voluntary bodies and local education authorities, whose joint responsibility it is to make partnership effective and fruitful. They should form the spearhead of the Service, drawn increasingly from the ranks of experienced and professionally qualified leaders: one of the sad results of the collapse of the university training schemes has been that in recent years this recruitment has not always been possible. Much depends on the ability of Youth Service officers and officers of voluntary associations in an area to work together with good will and in personal harmony; we recognise too that the roles of the two types of officer are not the same.

295.            The Youth Service officer or further education officer is the agent through whom the authority and their youth committee can ensure the proper servicing of youth groups in the area. He must be alive to the needs and possibilities of development and be particularly sensitive to the emergence of groups of older adolescents who, with guidance and support from him, arc quite capable of running their own business. He should offer an effective service of information and advice. It is to him that youth groups put forward their needs for premises or equipment, for instructors and sometimes for leadership, and it is for him to help them find what they want. On him will fall the duty to organise common services for all groups in the area, from camp sites to foreign exchanges or area festivals. Of these, training is the most important. He should enlist the interest of his authority’s organisers of physical education, drama, art and crafts and music, not only to raise standards in the clubs but to provide opportunities for skilled performers to work at a higher level than any one club can offer them. He must know his groups thoroughly and be able to assess their achievement and to help them to improve it. The supervision and guidance of leaders, particularly of those who are new to the job, is his responsibility. He has to service his committee and must undertake some administrative duties. But he must not be tied to his office nor must he be used as a cheap delivery-van for carrying equipment from club to club. He is above all a field-worker and must be given the clerical and office services to free him for his primary task.

296.            Many of these duties apply equally to the officer of a voluntary organisation, particularly those of guidance, stimulus and advice. He too is a field-worker and should be free to act as one. He has his own task of development, and he is under an obligation to further the purposes of his own organisation and to train its members in its special techniques and aims. But we hope that he can see himself as a specialist member of a team, even to the extent of being ready to offer his own special skills to groups outside his own organisation. Development and training are matters in which team-work is above all essential. Both are the responsibilities of the authority’s youth committee, which has a duty to bring the voluntary associations into full consultation. Team-work of this sort exists and we are anxious to extend it.

297.  We do not want to see the Youth Service top-heavy with organisers. But the Service, above all in a period of expansion and since it relies so heavily on voluntary effort, needs the imaginative guidance that experienced officers can give. There are still authorities, some of them large and enlightened ones, who have no Youth Service officer or equivalent post. We find it hard to see how such an authority can properly carry out its obligations under the Act.

 

CHAPTER 7: Finance

 

298.            In Chapter 1 we mentioned the present sources of finance for the Youth Service and the machinery for using public funds in aid of it. We come now to the way in which the expanded Service which we envisage should be financed in the future. We consider in turn public funds administered centrally, public funds administered locally, funds raised by voluntary organisations nationally and locally, and contributions made by young people themselves as members of youth groups.

 

GRANTS FROM THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

 

299.            The public funds administered centrally take the form of direct grants made by the Ministry under (a) the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939, and (b) the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937. We deal with these two categories separately. These Regulations were made under section 118 of the Education Act, 1921, and remain in force by virtue of section 121 of the Education Act, 1944. In our view they and the provisions of the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937, give the Minister sufficient power to take the additional action which we recommend in this Report. We suggest, however, that this opportunity should be taken to consider whether the Regulations might now be revised and re-issued under section 100 of the Education Act, 1944.

 

(a) SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL TRAINING GRANT REGULATIONS, 1939

300.            Of the three types of grant made under these Regulations the first comprises annual grants to national voluntary youth organisations in aid of all or some of their expenses of organisation and administration.  Details of these grants are shown in Appendix 2. In administering these grants the expenses considered are those of the headquarters of each of the organisations concerned. The first point for decision is, should these grants be continued at all? In our view they should be. They represent an important part of the contribution which the Ministry make as one of the partners in the Youth Service; and some of the national voluntary bodies concerned would be seriously hampered in their work if these grants were discontinued. In our view, expenditure on grants to these bodies is a valuable investment; a grant judiciously applied can bring in a return in terms of effective and enthusiastic work at far less cost than if the same services had to be provided directly by public authorities. This does not mean that all the present grants should continue unchanged; indeed, we think that both the scale and scope of these grants need review

301.            It has been suggested to us that such grants should be administered by some form of committee outside the Ministry of Education and constituted on the lines of the University Grants Committee. We think that this suggestion is unrealistic. The University Grants Committee is concerned with the allocation of many millions of pounds of public money over a wide range of educational subjects. These direct grants to national voluntary youth organisations are related to a comparatively small sector of the further education field, and even if their total were quadrupled, they would still amount to less than 2500,000. No separate committee seems required to deal with a sum of this order, and we consider that the assessment and allocation of these grants should remain the responsibility of the Minister of Education. We should hope, however, that he would find it useful to obtain from time to time the advice of the Youth Service Development Council on the scope and effectiveness of the grants.

302.             The next question is, should the total amount of these grants be retained at its present level of some El 15,000 per annum? On the basis of the evidence which we have received our conclusion is that the level of the grants should be raised considerably. If the national voluntary partners in the Service are to carry out effectively the work which only they can do, they must be relieved of anxiety about their basic administrative expenditure. At present their experimental and development work is being hindered by the time and labour which their headquarters staffs have to give to finding funds to cover routine costs. It would make all the difference to many of them if the greater part of their reasonable expenditure on administration and training could be covered by grants from the Ministry. This would enable them to concentrate more effectively on new solutions for new problems in the field.

303.            At present these headquarters grants are calculated, in terms of the Regulations, by reference to the constitution and financial standing of each organisation, its fitness to receive grant, and the character, efficiency, volume and cost of the work which is being aided. We have tried to devise a formula for assessing these grants, but have found that the work done and methods of organising it vary so greatly that such a formula seems impracticable. Two needs, however, are obvious: voluntary bodies should know and understand the basis on which the grants are calculated, and their essential pioneering functions should be preserved and encouraged. To meet these needs we recommend that there should be two kinds of grants, viz. (i) basic grants towards headquarters administrative and training expenses (including those of national and regional residential centres) amounting normally to not more than 75 per cent. of the whole cost of such provision for the 14—20 age range as may be accepted by the Ministry for grant purposes, and (ii) special grants, particularly for experimental or pioneering work in respect of this age range. The onus of establishing a claim to either kind of grant should rest upon the organisation applying for it.

304.            Presumably these recurring grants will continue to be offered annually. There seems to us, however, no obvious reason why the Ministry should not be able to assess basic grants on a triennial basis, subject of course to the necessary monies being made available by Parliament. It would obviously help the national bodies themselves to know what basic grants they might expect to receive in each successive triennial period.

305.            National organisations which are not in receipt of grants at present should be eligible to apply for special grants at any time, irrespective of their membership. We suggest that they should only be eligible for basic grants when they can show an affiliated membership of not less than 10,000 within the 14—20 age range. This is the figure adopted by the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations as a qualification for its own full membership

306.            In addition to the organisations which have a specific membership there are a number of national bodies of a different kind which can diversify the Youth Service by organising opportunities for purposeful activities, or providing services or expertise for many types of youth work. We have in mind such bodies as the Civic Trust, Friends Work Camps Committee, Council for Nature and the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, to mention only a few. We recommend that their applications for special grants should be considered on a par with, and on the same basis as, those of the national voluntary youth organisations.

307.            In this context there is an anomaly which should be removed.  Regulation 5 of the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939, provides that – “A person must not be required, as a condition of taking advantage of any facilities or training for which aid is sought under these Regulations, to attend or abstain from attending any Sunday School, place of religious worship, religious observance or instruction in religious subjects.” In applying this regulation to grants to national bodies the Ministry have taken the view that grant cannot properly be offered to any organisation which has as its object the provision of advantages to people who, as a condition of enjoying them, are expected to profess some kind of denominational adherence. For these reasons grants are not made to the youth departments of the Churches themselves, and a grant has been specifically refused to the Methodist Association of Youth Clubs, even though many of these clubs are in fact “open” clubs. On the other hand, the Ministry have for some time grant-aided the headquarters expenditure of several organisations which are closely connected with the Church of England. A headquarters grant is also given to the Association for Jewish Youth. The anomaly inherent in the Ministry’s policy seems to us indefensible, and we consider that it should be ended. Public funds are used to assist voluntary schools and training colleges with denominational allegiances. There seems no reason why national youth bodies with similar allegiances should not be similarly eligible for them. The sole criterion should be the value of the social and educational work which they are doing for young people in the 14—20 age range

308.            The second type of grant made by the Ministry under these Regulations comprises the annual grants for the training of youth leaders. These take the form of grants for students attending full-time training courses and since the beginning of the 1957-8 session they have been calculated on the same basis as those applicable to grants for the training of teachers. At present the Ministry offer up to some 30 grants a year, tenable for the one-year training course at University College, Swansea, and for the second year of the two-year course at Westhill Training College, Birmingham. In view of what we recommend in Chapter 6, it will be for the Minister to consider the extent to which he can increase these grants. This will be particularly necessary if any part of the cost of an emergency training scheme is to be met by direct grants from the Ministry, rather than in the manner referred to in paragraph 317.

309.            In addition to these two kinds of recurring grants the Ministry make grants to local voluntary bodies in respect of the capital cost of premises and equipment for youth clubs and centres. These grants at present cover 50 per cent. Of the approved expenditure, subject to a ceiling of £5,000 in any individual case.  We have considered whether these capital grants should continue to be made centrally. On the one hand, capital grants from the centre were virtually discontinued in Scotland 10 years ago. Quite a number of the Ministry’s officers in London some Cardiff deal with these small individual cases which could probably be disposed of in local education authority offices without any additional staff at all. It can also be argued that for grants of this kind local knowledge is preferable to central administration, and that if decisions rested entirely with the authorities, more of them might exercise their powers more responsibly. In any case, are capital grants from the centre any longer consistent with the statutory duties imposed upon the authorities by the Education Act, 1944, or with the additional freedom for the authorities upon which are based the general grants payable under the Local Government Act, 1958? On the other hand, and in favour of continuing the present arrangement, it can be argued that the treatment accorded to individual applications is more uniform and probably more generous at the centre than it might be if responsibility were left entirely to the local education authorities. There is also the point that, so long as Ministry grants in aid of capital expenditure under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937 continue, they should not be discontinued under the 1939 Regulations. We have considered these contending arguments, and we have come to the conclusion that the present practice is difficult to justify indefinitely and that these capital grants from the centre under the 1939 Regulations should ultimately be discontinued. However, we are anxious to do nothing which might in any way diminish sources of financial aid to local clubs during the emergency period of the next five years. We therefore propose that these capital grants should continue to be available centrally for this period of development; after that, local voluntary youth bodies should look to their local education authorities for assistance with capital expenditure as they already do for help with the cost of maintaining premises and paying staff. The authorities already have powers to contribute towards the cost of such capital expenditure, and we should expect them to exercise those powers fully when these grants cease to be made centrally.

310.            While the grants continue to be made from the Ministry we think that the 50 per cent. basis for them will be reasonable. We feel, however, that the ceiling of £5,000 should be removed altogether. It appears to have been adopted when the ceiling for a “minor works” project to be undertaken by a local education authority was fixed at £IO,OOO, and it could be justified by the need to spread as widely as possible the small amount of money available for these grants. The “minor works” ceiling has now been raised to £20,OOO, and we should imagine that there can be comparatively few voluntary bodies able to undertake capital expenditure in excess of £IO,OOO on the provision of premises or equipment for local youth work. The number of acceptable applications for grant in respect of jobs costing more than that figure is therefore likely to be few and we should expect the Ministry to have no difficulty in finding sufficient funds to meet them. For these reasons it seems unnecessary to retain any ceiling in respect of individual grants of this kind.

311.            There is an additional reason for this recommendation. It is important that voluntary bodies who are able and willing to do so should be assisted to provide residential accommodation for the Youth Service such as we recommend in Chapter 5. We are convinced of the value of this type of accommodation, and we should not wish projects designed for this purpose to be refused capital grants merely because of the additional cost which must inevitably be involved.

 

(b) PHYSICAL TRAINING AND RECREATION ACT, 1937

312.            The Minister’s powers to make grants under this Act are exercised primarily for the welfare of adults. Many of the grants which are made do, however, benefit young people as well, and we have considered whether on this ground some at least of these grants might appropriately be increased. Like the grants made under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939, those made under the 1937 Act fall into three categories. The first comprises four annual grants made towards the headquarters expenses of the National Council of Social Service, the Council of Social Service for Wales and Monmouthshire, the English Folk Dance and Song Society and the Central Council of Physical Recreation. We are not much concerned here with the first three of these grants, but the fourth has considerable importance for the Youth Service. It is related to the administrative expenses of the Council’s London headquarters and the salaries of its regional representatives. It does not cover any part of the Council’s expenditure on its three national recreational centres at Bisham Abbey (near Marlow, Bucks.), Lilleshall Hall (near Newport, Shropshire) and Plas y Brenin (Capel Curig, North Wales). Until recently part of the Ministry’s grant to the Council was paid under the 1939 Regulations and the rest under the 1937 Act. Since the 1st April, 1958, however, and in accordance with the recommendations of the Select Committee on Estimates, the whole of the Ministry’s grant to the Council has been shown under the 1937 Act. On the analogy of the recommendations which we have made in respect of grants to national voluntary youth organisations under the 1939 Regulations, we would urge the Ministry to consider whether, in addition to the present grant, they should not give the Council a special grant to enable it to develop its experimental and pioneering work, especially in the field of coaching courses.

313.            The Council itself has suggested to us that the Ministry should also give annual grants towards the headquarters expenditure of at least some of the governing bodies of sport, on the ground that such assistance would enable them to make increased contribution towards the welfare of young people. We have considered this suggestion carefully, but we do not feel able to recommend grants of this kind. It will be impracticable to assist all the governing bodies concerned; it would be invidious to try to select some from among the many who make some contribution towards the welfare of adolescents as well as of adults, and to draw distinctions between purely amateur organisations and those of a professional character. This last point arises because section 9 of the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937, makes it clear that the only voluntary organisations eligible for grants from the Minister under section 3 are those which carry on or propose to carry on undertakings “otherwise than for profit”.

314.            Instead of seeking to aid the headquarters expenditure of any governing bodies of sport we think it would be better if the Ministry could expand the number of grants which they make in aid of coaching schemes administered by some of these bodies. These grants form the second type of those made annually under the 1937 Act. They are designed to enable a few professional coaches to train a large number of voluntary coaches, who in their turn can give instruction and advice to young people and adults in schools, clubs and sports associations. The grant generally covers four-fifths of the salary of the professional coach or £800 per annum whichever is less, together with a contribution of £50 towards his administrative expenses. Grants of this kind are at present made to the Amateur Athletic Association, the Amateur Fencing Association, the All England Women’s Hockey Association, the Lawn Tennis Association and the Amateur Swimming Association. We understand that owing to the lack of funds similar grants have from time to time been refused to other national bodies who were prepared to undertake coaching schemes. Clearly schemes of this kind can be of great benefit to young people in the age group with which we are concerned. It is also probable that some grants from the Ministry may be needed if such schemes are to be expanded where they already exist or developed where they have not yet started. We recommend, therefore, that the Ministry should be prepared to consider applications for expanding existing schemes and developing new ones.

315.            The third category of central grants made under the 1937 Act is in aid of capital expenditure incurred by local voluntary bodies on village halls, community centres, swimming baths, playing fields and equipment for them. Many of these facilities provide real benefits for adolescents as well as adults, and this is particularly true with swimming baths, playing fields and the changing rooms and pavilions which commonly go with them. Here too, however, certain restrictions may be having a limiting effect on the value of the grants which are being made. We do not quarrel with the present percentage basis of these grants, which extends to one-third of the capital cost of projects of the kind mentioned above. But at present there is an administrative ceiling of £3,330 on the Ministry’s grant in any individual case. This corresponds to the ceiling of £5,000 operating in respect of the grants under the 1939 Regulations. In view of the high cost of some of these projects, it may be necessary for the Ministry to retain a general ceiling of some sort in respect of these grants. We recommend, however, that no ceiling should operate if it is established that the project concerned is specially designed to benefit young people in the 14-20 age group as well as those who are older

316.        We cannot calculate precisely the financial effect of the proposals we have made in paragraphs 299-315. Much will depend upon the extent to which the voluntary bodies, both national and local, establish their claims for grants on the lines we have suggested, and also upon the arrangements which the Minister makes to develop facilities for the training of youth leaders. We think, however, that he would be wise to estimate in addition to possible increases of grant under the 1937 Act, a considerable increase in the offers of direct grant made for the Youth Service under the 1939 Regulations. The figure of £229,000 appears under this head in the Ministry’s published estimates for 1959-60. We should expect that considerably more than that sum might be needed for 1960-61, and that the Minister should be prepared to increase it in each of the years of the emergency period if necessary.

 

EXPENDITURE BY LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES

 

317.            According to the information which they have supplied to us the local education authorities are at present spending about £2½ million annually on the Youth Service. A summary statement of this expenditure appears in Appendix 4. It is not possible for us to estimate how much more they should spend each year if effect is given to our proposals for more and better provision for the Youth Service. There are far too many imponderable factors to make any calculation practicable, and much must depend on the needs revealed by a revision of the authorities’ schemes of further education. We are convinced, however, that the major part in the local development of youth work must be played by the authorities, and that they will therefore need to spend considerably more on the Service than they do at present, in the ways we have indicated in Chapters 4 and 5, if real progress is to be achieved. All the expenditure which they incur as local education authorities, and any which they may incur under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937, in providing or helping with the provision of facilities with which that Act is concerned, ranks as relevant expenditure for the purpose of general grants payable to them under the Local Government Act, 1958. If it is decided that they ought to undertake more expenditure on this branch of further education or in respect of those facilities, it will be essential for this additional expenditure to be matched by additional general grants. It will be for the Minister to see that this is done, and we should expect the Development Council to advise him about it. If it is found that the development of youth work is being hindered because the general grants cannot be increased during the periods for which they operate, we suggest that some separate percentage grants should be introduced in respect of Youth Service expenditure, at least during the ten-year period of development we have recommended. This would not create a precedent, but we realise that it might involve legislation to amend the First Schedule to the Local Government Act, 1958. It might in any case be needed for expenditure incurred by local education authorities on an emergency scheme for the training of youth leaders.

318.            In this context we have to consider the fact that the Ministry continue to control the capital expenditure of local education authorities. These authorities are at present undertaking very large programmes of capital expenditure on premises and equipment for secondary schools, technical colleges and teacher training colleges. Despite these various capital commitments we think that they should be permitted to undertake more capital expenditure on the Youth Service than they can now. At present their further education building programmes (for projects costing more than £20,000 each) are for practical purposes restricted to technical, commercial and art establishments, and projects for youth centres have little chance of finding a place in programmes. But the authorities ought to be able to provide such centres if they need them, and we therefore recommend that the Ministry should revise their capital investment control arrangements to make this possible.

319.            Projects costing not more than £20,000 can be dealt with by the authorities out of the “minor works” allocations made to them by the Ministry. They have discretion to use these allocations as they wish, but inevitably the claims upon them are many. It seems to us that, if the Youth Service is to be revived and developed, the authorities must have sufficient allocations to enable them to undertake the necessary capital expenditure for minor jobs for the Service. It will be for the Ministry to consider how their present control arrangements can best be modified to provide for this. If the general allocations cannot conveniently be enlarged, each authority should have a special additional allocation sufficient to meet their Youth Service needs

320.            Much of the evidence presented to us emphasises the difficulties caused to local voluntary bodies by the marked variations in policy and practice which exist between local education authorities in their attitude towards the Service. Most irksome are the variations in (i) local awards by authorities to people attending training courses, (ii) grants towards the salaries of full-time leaders employed by voluntary bodies and (iii) grants towards expenditure incurred by voluntary bodies on training and on local or regional administration. The example of those which become known in Youth Service circles as the “better” authorities is always there for comparison: authorities, for example, who will make generous training awards; authorities who will pay the whole of a full-time leader’s salary; and authorities who set out to raise standards by matching expert advice with stimulating maintenance grants. Obviously, however, there will be variations in a national system which is locally administered. We have no wish to invade the proper autonomy of local education authorities. We believe, however, that in practice there are standards below which an authority should not fall in providing for the Youth Service in their area. Our enquiries show that several authorities give substantial annual maintenance grants to local voluntary groups; for example, grants which cover the greater part of the rent, rates, heating and lighting of premises. Moreover, where they are satisfied that appointments are justified and that need exists, several authorities also pay up to 100 per cent. of the salaries of full-time leaders, using for teachers and others with equivalent qualifications the Burnham scales of salaries approved for teachers in primary and secondary schools, and for unqualified leaders a somewhat lower scale. For part-time leaders, assistance is often given at the rates applicable to the staff of evening institutes. Grants are also made towards the maintenance and travelling expenses of leaders and senior members attending approved training courses organised severally or jointly by authorities and voluntary bodies themselves. The usual rate of these grants is 50 per cent. of the cost, and it may amount to 100 per cent. in special cases, e.g., for special leadership training courses organised for voluntary workers. In addition some authorities give small special grants to help new groups establish themselves, and to encourage experimental work; and they also assist the local headquarters of some voluntary youth and specialist organisations which they consider deserve help. In our view assistance on these lines and scales constitutes the appropriate minimum level of aid which local education authorities can be expected to give to voluntary bodies. For the future, however, more generous aid than this may well be needed, and we should like to see greater and more consistent financial support given to those voluntary bodies which merit it.  Assistance on these lines involves an assessment of the value of the work done, and calls for some form of recognition of groups, so that standards may be assured in return for support from public funds.

321.            The review of schemes of further education, to which we have referred in Chapter 4, will give authorities a chance to re-examine their existing arrangements for grants and loans, so as to ensure that they make the maximum use of voluntary effort in their areas. They will need also to consider the staff they themselves employ in organising and servicing. We would make a plea here for adequate administrative and clerical help for their youth departments, so that trained people can be kept in the field.

322.            We hope that local education authorities will also provide money for experimental work, for adventure schemes, for aiding at an adequate level local groups and organisations, including those which provide services for the Youth Service as well as those with an individual membership. They may wish to try various new methods themselves, but they should certainly be on the look-out for original developments and new voluntary groups which may require nursing along. Authorities may care to observe the same sort of distinction between basic and special grants which we have already recommended to the Ministry in paragraph 303.

 

EXPENDITURE BY OTHER LOCAL AUTHORITIES

 

323.            The Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937, empowers local authorities to provide facilities, not merely for certain forms of physical training, but also “for the purpose of centres for the use of clubs, societies or organisations having athletic, social and educational objects”. The authorities may also contribute towards the expenses incurred by other local authorities or by voluntary bodies in providing or maintaining such facilities within their areas; and the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1958, made it clear that any such contribution to a voluntary body might take the form of a loan. It does not appear that the local authorities who are not local education authorities make extensive use of these powers. There seems, however, no obvious reason why minor authorities should not take advantage of them, either to provide facilities for youth work themselves or to contribute towards the cost of provision made by voluntary bodies or other authorities. We recommend that their attention should be drawn to these powers and to the desirability of using them in the interests of young people in the 14—20 age range.

 

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM VOLUNTARY SOURCES

 

324.            The Youth Service we want to see, being a partnership between the statutory and the voluntary, should not subsist solely on public funds.  In spite, therefore, of the increases which we have suggested in grants from the Ministry and expenditure by local authorities, it is evident that if the principle of partnership is to prove effective in practice, increased contributions must be found from voluntary sources as well. To suggest any pattern which affected radically the balance between voluntary and statutory responsibility would weaken the partnership. It follows that voluntary sources of assistance will have to be tapped harder than before, and that the voluntary bodies themselves must have the courage to do the tapping.

325.            We believe that there is an increasing scope for voluntary contributions at two levels. At the national level we should like to see a concerted campaign designed to explain to the public generally what the Youth Service can do and how much it depends upon their support. We should hope that all the national voluntary youth organisations might be prepared to combine in supporting a national appeal. Part of the proceeds of such an appeal might properly be earmarked for purely national work. The rest could perhaps be used to assist local development where it is needed most. The national appeal would not rule out parallel regional or even more local appeals, and indeed the necessity of focussing local interest on the local Youth Service is obvious. What would be a pity, however, would be a series of disconnected campaigns promoted by different organisation either centrally or locally. What is wanted is combined action.

326.            We have suggested in Chapter 4 that in some areas clubs might be more closely associated with the life of their neighbourhood through the creation of supporters’ councils. If these councils can be established, we should hope that neighbourhood funds could be built up in aid of the service. The councils, together with the management committees of individual clubs and centres, could make a major contribution to improving the Service if they could relieve skilled leaders of the burden of raising money and allow them to concentrate on giving practical help to young people. We recommend that the Standing Conference should urge all national voluntary youth organisations to commend these proposals to their affiliated members.

 

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM YOUNG PEOPLE

 

327.            It is frequently said that young people themselves should pay more for what the Youth Service offers them. The figures quoted in Chapter 2 on earning and free spending money are striking, and there is no doubt that many youth clubs charge subscriptions which are unrealistically low.  At the same time we have to take account of wide variations among the earnings of individual boys and girls, of trends in population and of probable trends in employment. Club members who are still in full-time education and some apprentices have little spare money; and it is not certain that the increased number of young people in the 1960’s will continue to enjoy such a sellers’ market in employment as they have in recent years. We also recognise that young people often contribute towards the costs of the Youth Service through special efforts and self-help within individual clubs, units, groups or communities. Notwithstanding these qualifications, we have come to the conclusion that young people generally will be prepared and should be encouraged to pay more than many do at present for the facilities which the Service provides. Charges should obviously be related to what is offered, and the right time to raise subscriptions is when the facilities themselves are being improved. Moreover, differentials might be used, so that boys and girls receiving full-time education should pay less than those who are earning full wages.

328.            Accordingly, we recommend that the Minister should ask local education authorities to review the charges which they make in the youth clubs and centres which they maintain, and that the Standing Conference should urge its members to arrange for similar reviews of charges made by the local voluntary clubs, units and groups affiliated to them.

329.            The recommendations in this chapter would, we believe, put the financial responsibilities of the various bodies concerned with the Youth Service on to a satisfactory footing. The changes in organisation proposed (and the removal or lifting of financial limits) will not in themselves add much to the cost. It is, however, implicit in the whole tenor of our Report that the Youth Service is in urgent need of remodelling and expansion.  This will clearly cost a good deal, and we may be asked whether we can say how much.

330.             We have not the materials from which to frame an answer to this question. We have not recommended a single standard pattern for all Youth Service activities to be adopted in all areas and achieved by a fixed date. Instead we have suggested the broad lines on which we believe that the Service can appropriately be developed, recognising that much must be left to local initiative and that there must be room for experiment.

331.            The cost of the Youth Service in future years will, therefore, depend on the decisions to be taken by the various bodies concerned with its development, and above all on the vigour with which the nation responds to the new concepts outlined in our Report

332.            In our opinion, the cost of the Service needs to be judged by two criteria:-

(1)   the benefits which it may be expected to bring to the nation as a whole; and

(2)  the cost of the other comparable social services for which the nation has made itself responsible, in particular the standards and scale of the provision made for those remaining in full-time education after the age of 15.

 

CHAPTER 8: The Position in Wales

 

333.            The general features of the Youth Service in Wales resemble those in England. With the exception of Urdd Gobaith Cymru (the Welsh League of Youth), all the non-local voluntary organisations are off-shoots of parent bodies in England or Scotland; in Wales, too, some local education authorities have established their own clubs or centres; and one and all—voluntary clubs and local education authority centres—are administered under the same statutory provisions as those in England.

334.            The position, however, is not an exact replica of that in England, for Wales is not an English region. Its people live, and have lived for centuries, in a land which is adjacent to but was, until early modern times, apart from the realm of England; they speak, though in diminishing numbers, a language of their own; they use this language not merely as a vehicle of communication but as the medium of worship, literature and song, and, in some parts of the country, of their education; and they share a common history and traditions, compounded of memories of sorrows and failures endured and of pleasures and successes enjoyed right down the ages. In short, they are a nation with a culture which, though fertilised and enriched by the mainstream of Western European civilisation, is yet something essentially Welsh. Exposed for good and for ill to outside influences from the dawn of history, living side by side with one of the most culturally powerful nations in the world, and lacking the power and prestige of a national state to support their language and institutions, they have yet contrived to preserve their identity to this day. True, a minority only of the inhabitants now speak Welsh, but those who do not are none the less Welsh for all that. The English which they speak is English “with a difference”, not always free from Welsh idioms; estranged though they are from the native language and from some of the most valuable elements in their heritage, they are still conscious of belonging to “a peculiar people”. They have lost their ancient tongue, but they are still members of the ancestral family.

335.            The national sentiment, traits and traditions of Wales find expression in such institutions as the University of Wales, the National Library, the National Museum, the National Eisteddfod and the Welsh Department of the Ministry of Education. In much the same way, they are reflected in, and are to some extent expressed by, the Youth Service. Urdd Gobaith Cymru, for example, the only indigenous non-sectarian youth organisation in Wales, was founded in 1922 with the specific object of fostering among its members an interest in and a love of Wales, though its motto (“For Wales, for my fellow-men and for Christ”) testifies to the wider concept of citizenship which it seeks to cherish. Most other voluntary organisations, moreover, though English in origin, are administered from headquarters in Wales. Nor is that all, for the national consciousness of some of them finds expression in even the apparently trivial matters of nomenclature; an outsider could be pardoned if, for instance, he failed to recognise in the Welsh Association of Boys’ Clubs and in -the Welsh Association of Youth Clubs constituent elements of the National Association of Boys’ Clubs and of the National Association of Mixed Clubs and Girls’ Clubs respectively. Some of our witnesses were also at pains to emphasise that though the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations in Wales is constitutionally a part of the Standing Conference in England, it is none the less a national rather than a regional body.

336.            The existence of two languages necessitates a different approach to the problems of youth and at the same time multiplies them. A bilingual nation needs bilingual provision in the form of youth clubs no less than in the provision of schools. It is natural, therefore, to find in some villages and towns youth clubs conducting their affairs through the medium of Welsh within a stone’s throw of others which are wholly English. Urdd Gobaith Cynwu largely functions through the medium of Welsh, the other voluntary organisations through English or through both. On the other hand, the Urdd has established a few English-speaking clubs in the more anglicised parts of Wales (where they are known as “Young Wales Clubs” as distinct from the “Aelwydydd” in Welsh Wales), and some clubs belonging to other organisations—notably the Young Farmers’ Clubs—conduct some at least of their activities through Welsh. The pattern is varied.

337.            The geographical configuration of the country and the distribution of its population react on the Youth Service as on other parts of the educational field. Large tracts of Wales are sparsely populated, and 67 per cent. of the total population of a little over 2} million is concentrated in a mere 13 per cent. of the total area of the country—mainly in the two counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth. Even today, ignoring the creations of the industrial revolution, the typical Welsh community is the scattered hamlet rather than the nucleated village so characteristic, for example, of the Cotswolds in England; Llanwynno in the blaenau (or hill-region) rather than Llantwit Major in the fro (the vale) is, and always has been, more characteristic of Wales. The scattered nature of these small communities – small farms isolated from each other – has contributed in no small measure to much that is best in Welsh culture, for the inhabitants, for centuries, were obliged to provide their own interest and amusements on the hearth. But it also has its disadvantages; it is not easy, for example, to organise youth clubs in such a community, as the necessary numbers as well as the necessary geographical focal points are often lacking. Equally important, co-operation between such rural communities, and indeed, on a larger scale, between adjacent local education authorities, is not always a matter of practical politics. Desirable though it may be, the hard facts of geography prescribe limits here and there.

338.            If, therefore, the Youth Service in Wales is in some respects similar to that in England, in others it is markedly different. It accordingly merits, however briefly, a separate reference to and a discussion of its own problems.  There is, of course, in Wales as in England, among administrators and club leaders alike, the same sense of urgency and frustration, the same lack of tools wherewith to do the job. The great numerical increase of young people during the next few years, the ending of national service, the possible increase of juvenile unemployment, the existence of new housing estates, the development of automation in industry – all these factors are common both countries, and what has already been written in this Report about their significance in the one is equally applicable to the other.

339.            Similarly, what we have described as “The Changing Scene” – the changing pattern of work (which is particularly true of Wales, with its diversification of industry in large areas where once “coal was king”), the general attitude of industry towards its young people, the climate of opinion in which they live (with its international tensions, its very fluid yet highly organised society, and its conflicting voices calling them in this direction and that) – all this is at least as true of Wales as it is of England.

340.            It follows that an efficient Youth Service is no less necessary in the one country than it is in the other – again, not as a remedial measure, a therapeutic pick-me-up, nor as a uniform, stratified, comprehensive agency embracing every young man and woman within its fold (geography alone would make nonsense of such a thing), but as a live, flexible and varied means of encouraging what we have called good development, of creating a sense of fellowship, of assisting young people to choose wisely and well, of stimulating them to meet challenge with response, including the challenge to preserve their heritage against the threats to which it is exposed from modern means of mass communication.

341.            Unfortunately, however, the Youth Service in Wales is as ill-equipped to meet this situation as it is in England. Its condition is equally critical, despite the often admirable work which is being done by voluntary and paid workers alike; shortage of suitable premises, a dearth of suitable leaders, and above all, a serious deficiency of hard cash have had their depressing effects throughout the whole field. Moreover, there is no national council to whom the Minister can turn for advice and with whom he can discuss matters of policy, though, as in England, there is the Central Advisory Council for Education to which questions related to the Youth Service can be and have been referred. There is also the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations, but as a constituent member of the parent body in England rather than a completely autonomous national body, it has no direct access to the Ministry

342.            We have already stated that the Youth Service in Wales is administered under the same statutory provisions as in England. Three comments on its financial aspect, however, are necessary. In the first place, with the exception of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, and the Girl Guides training centre at Llandinam, no direct grants are paid by the Ministry to any voluntary organisation in Wales in respect of administrative and training expenses; the grants made the parent bodies relate to their work in England and Wales as a whole, and it is left to their discretion to allocate a proportion of these grants to meet specifically Welsh needs if they wish to. It was put to us by some of our witnesses that while some organisations are satisfied with these arrangements others are not so happy, and would prefer to receive their grants direct from the Ministry. We do not wish to make any recommendation on such a domestic matter, but we assume that, if the amount of such grants is substantially increased, there will be a proportional increase in any allocation made to Wales

343.            Secondly, there is in Wales, as in England, the same inequality of assistance given by local education authorities to the voluntary clubsand organisations within their areas; indeed, some of the most glaring examples of such inequality were given by witnesses from Wales. We would again assert that a rigid uniformity of provision is undesirable, even if it were practicable; but we would also re-affirm our conviction that, in considering their provision for voluntary clubs and organisations, no local education authority should fall below the minimum standards to which we refer in Chapter 7. Closely allied to this matter is another: the need for much closer co-operation between the local education authorities and the voluntary bodies in respect of such questions as grant-aid, premises, equipment and training. This is no less urgent in Wales than in England

344.            Thirdly, there is the financial assistance given by the Ministry to national bodies under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937, which enables much work to be done with young people. Wales benefits from these grants; many youth clubs and voluntary organisations, for example, can and do call upon the advice and services of the Central Council of Physical Recreation, while the administrative work of the Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations is done entirely by the Council of Social Service for Wales and Monmouthshire

345.            We have considered whether the creation of a Youth Service Development Council for Wales, similar to but separate from that for England, is necessary or desirable. We recognise the cogency of some of the arguments that can be adduced in favour of such a proposal (not least the force of national sentiment), but as the fundamental principles underlying the Youth Service are the same in the two countries, we are of the opinion that they can best be considered by a single Council representing the interests of both. In order that the needs of Wales, however, can be brought to the Council’s notice, we recommend that at least two of its members should be appointed for their knowledge of the special problems of Wales. This seems particularly desirable in view of what we have said elsewhere[37] about provision in Wales for the training of full-time youth leaders.

346.            There is also in Wales the same urgent need for local education authorities to revise their further education schemes and bring them up-to-date; to create or revive their sub-committees responsible for the Youth Service within their areas; to constitute advisory committees along the lines we have already suggested; to provide more suitably designed and furnished premises and residential centres, as well as more and better facilities for physical recreation; to review the financial and other provisions they make for young people attending voluntary clubs and training courses no less than for those attending their own; to further the voluntary principle by encouraging voluntary help in all their own clubs and centres; in short, to review the Youth Service as a whole, and in particular to overhaul the machinery whereby the closest possible cooperation can be achieved with the voluntary organisations and the maximum assistance, in terms of money and services, given to them. We also hope that local authorities, other than local education authorities, will be made aware of the powers they enjoy to promote the welfare of their young people, and will make greater use of them.

347.  In the next few years the Youth Service, in Wales as elsewhere, will witness a remarkable advance on a wide front or its gradual extinction through sheer inanition. We believe that it has a promising future before it, provided it is regarded as an essential and important part of our education system and not as a poor relation. If the recommendations made in this chapter and in our Report in general are implemented; in particular, if the Ministry and the local education authority are prepared to spend substantially more upon it than they have done hitherto; if the partnership which now exists between the Ministry, the local education authorities and the voluntary organisations becomes real rather than nominal, and is further strengthened by enlisting the active support of young people themselves and giving them a greater responsibility for programme planning; if the Development Council through its two representatives from Wales can keep its finger on the pulse of the Youth Service and be alive to its pressing needs; above all, perhaps, if increased generosity on the part of the Ministry, the local education authorities, the voluntary organisations and the general public is accompanied by greater imagination and drive on the part of all those responsible for the Service; if all these conditions are fulfilled, we are convinced that the Youth Service in Wales can look to the future with confidence and enjoy a new lease of life.

 

CHAPTER 9: The Youth Service and Society – A New Focus

 

348.            Many of our witnesses have told us of the sense of isolation felt by youth leaders, and of the lack of that public support and understanding which are essential if the Youth Service is to find its proper place in the social and educational structure of society. In the preceding chapters we hope we may have succeeded in communicating something of our strong conviction of the need for an adequate Youth Service, and our belief that in order to secure this the help of organised sections of society and of individual citizens needs to be enlisted to the full. In this chapter we suggest various forms that this help might take

349.            But first we need to consider the Youth Service in relation to the two major influences on young people—home and work—and its links with the other educational and social services. There is no substitute for a good home. The Youth Service cannot and should not relieve parents of responsibility for their children, but it can be a help to them at a period when difficult adjustments in relationship have to be made, a measure of independence recognised and new outside interests encouraged. We believe that parents and youth leaders can help each other; we hope that leaders will get to know increasingly the homes of their members whenever this is feasible; there is evidence that many parents welcome an opportunity to discuss their family problems. The rate of change in society, to which we have drawn attention, makes it especially difficult for parents to understand the changed ideas of the next generation, and this can lead either to intolerance or to indifference on their part, both of which attitudes are unfortunate in their effects. The Youth Service should be a support to family life, not an alternative to it.

350.            Work is likely to be a dominant factor in the lives of most of the young people for whom the Youth Service is designed. The sort of job a boy or girl holds, the degree of satisfaction or boredom found in it, the amount of youthful energies it absorbs, the opportunities for advancement and status it offers will all influence the range of satisfactions young people seek in their leisure time. Furthermore, adjustment to the world of their workfellows, so different from that of the classroom, may give rise to tensions and emotional problems which need to be resolved. It is clear then that those working in the Youth Service need to be aware of changing industrial conditions. They should try to work closely with youth employment officers and to establish as many contacts as they can with employers and trade union officials, especially in smaller establishments which have no personnel or education officers. Local education authorities and voluntary organisations might consider ways of strengthening the representation of industry and commerce on their committees. Courses for school leavers on “Learning and Earning”, particularly when these have been followed up by further conferences some months after the young people have settled into their jobs, have proved their value. Club leadersshould be prepared also to help with the problems that can arise as a result of temporary juvenile unemployment, and to be flexible about the hours of club opening. The Youth Service, in providing opportunities for young people to develop their abilities and interests, to enjoy their hours of recreation and to talk out their difficulties, can make a positive contribution to the welfare of an industrial society. We shall suggest later in this chapter the ways in which industry can help the Youth Service.

351.            The Youth Service is an integral part of the educational system, since it provides for the continued social and informal education of young people in terms most likely to bring them to maturity, those of responsible personal choice.  It is now an accepted commonplace in education that the infant learns by play, and nursery and infant school teaching is based on this concept; but recreation can be as educative to the adolescent as play is to the infant, and as important in promoting the physical, intellectual and moral development necessary to turn the teenager into the responsible adult citizen. It is, therefore, a mistake to attempt to draw too fine a distinction between recreation and the more formal kinds of further education. The Youth Service and other forms of further education differ in method rather than in intent, and the closer the liaison between them the greater the mutual advantage. Some of the members of youth clubs will be following courses of part-time vocational education; others may develop their interests and hobbies in their leisure time to the point where they seek, or can be led to seek, for more systematic instruction at evening institutes; all this suggests that youth leaders should be in close touch with the staffs of colleges of further education and evening institutes, and that some degree of consultation on the planning of programmes would be advisable. Nor is the traffic all one way – local education authorities by making specialist instructors available to youth groups contribute greatly to the range of interests that can be offered. Such help, however, must not be tied too rigidly by regulations about enrolment and attendance, or it will be self-defeating. Flexibility and tolerance are essential in the approach to young people in clubs and in the spontaneous, self-programming, single activity groups which we hope to see developed.

352.            This two-way traffic will be greatly helped when the county colleges become part of the educational pattern, and the complementary character of the various types of further education offered to young people becomes clearer. Something can be learnt in the meantime from the universities. In the great development programmes of the last decade increasing recognition has been given the value of halls of residence and student unions as instruments of education, and it is generally accepted that the environment a university offers outside its formal courses is of particular importance. We think the Youth Service can provide an environment of similar educational value for the non-university student. The county college will naturally make its own contribution through recreative evening classes, its students’ union and its self-directed college societies. It may be the meeting-place for some of the higher-level provision of the Youth Service, the city youth orchestra, the youth theatre or the games centre. It may be able to provide instructors and to lend some of its specialist accommodation to independent youth groups in the area. In these ways the county college will take the place in the Youth Service that is now filled by certain types of maintained youth centre, and will offer all that the youth centre now offers but with better resources and greater authority. The leisure activities of the college will thus be an element in the Youth Service, while its courses of compulsory further education will be a powerful complement to it. For both reasons youth workers will need to keep as closely in touch as they can with the college staff, particularly with those who, as tutors, have a personal responsibility for the welfare of individual students who may also be members of youth groups. The youth employment service too is likely to have its office in the county college, and this is another good reason for regular contact.

353.            But, as we have said in Chapter 5, we do not see the county college as the core of the Youth Service. However liberal the college and however free its student societies, it is not likely to provide directly for the leisure interests of more than a minority Of its students ; and the services it can offer to individual youth groups in the area can never be more than a minor element in the life of those groups. The Service, too, should have gone a long way by the time the county college comes, and it will, we hope, have encouraged at every step of its progress an increasing independence, initiative and self-reliance in the young. Some may find full satisfaction for their initiative within the college walls. A much greater number, we are sure, will prefer to get away from an establishment that they associate with compulsory attendance and time-tables, and will prefer to organise their own activities in groups of their own making.

354.            The greatest benefit of the college to the Service will be indirect, through the effect that compulsory further education will have on the young themselves. With the raising of the school leaving age and the establishment of county colleges, the Youth Service will have to deal with greater numbers of better-educated, more articulate, more demanding and, we hope, more stable young people.

355.            We have already indicated, by recommending a lowering of the age range by one year, our conviction that the links between the Youth Service and the schools need strengthening. The initiative here will have to come from the teachers, but the youth organisations can help to gain the confidence of the teaching profession by matching their standards with those found in the social activities of the schools. We do not under-rate the difficulty of building a bridge from school to the youth groups, though in the long run it should become easier if our recommendations for the training of youth leaders are accepted. All we can do is commend it and ask teachers and youth leaders to give it the serious consideration we believe it deserves; and we think that the recent experiment made by some local education authorities of appointing a number of teachers to foster activities for adolescents, whether they are still at school or have recently left, is a useful contribution, and that short residential courses for school leavers planned so as to introduce them to leisure-time pursuits have proved of value.

356.            Although the Youth Service has a defined part in the educational system, in some of its aspects, particularly in its pastoral function, it shades off into the welfare and social services. It is easy to use the word “adolescence” and in so doing forget that the Youth Service is there to help a large number of different personalities in the process of growing-up. Many of these individuals are splendid young people, healthy, self-confident, well-balanced; about these we need feel no anxiety. But there are others who find it difficult to come to terms with society, and whose social incapacity can take many forms, from shyness to compulsive exhibitionism and crime.  The Youth Service is there to help them, too, but at present this group is found principally amongst the “unattached”. A revivified and better provided Youth Service will, we hope, make a wider appeal and be able to help many of them to outgrow their difficulties. We think that the greater provision of residential and adventure courses which we have recommended, and the development of single activity groups, will be helpful here. We are bound, however, to say that in some of these young people the roots of their disorder lie so deep in childhood and environmental factors that if the Youth Service is to reach them it will have to be specially equipped to do so. This is more than a question of education; it is a long process of re-education. It calls for leaders with special aptitudes, has more affiliations with case-work and requires a higher ratio of staffing; likely to be expensive. We think that both local education authorities and voluntary organisations should consider what approaches they can make to this potentially explosive element, and that money should be forthcoming to extend and diversify the experimental techniques at present being tried. The Youth Service Development Council needs to give special attention to this problem, and to collect and collate the results of research and experiment. In the field it will be necessary for youth committees and leaders to work more closely with children’s officers and the probation service. If the problem is to be tackled seriously it will call, too, for a greater degree of understanding and patience on the part of the public. Experiment shows that initial success in gaining the confidence of the socially maladjusted can often lead to fresh outbursts of violence or law-breaking, as if to test the security of the relationship built up by the youth worker. The more support the worker can receive from the community the easier will be his task of persuading the gang that every man’s hand is not against them.

357.            We turn now to suggest further ways in which the public can give support to the Youth Service. Industry, as its more far-seeing elements recognise, has a vital interest in the healthy use of leisure by its young employees, and is becoming more and more concerned with the quality of life outside as well as inside the workplace. A number of firms contribute to the social education and all-round development of their young workers by releasing them for day attendance at further education establishments or by sending them to residential courses run by local education authorities or voluntary organisations, as well as by participating in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and other schemes. A few employers have even established works youth clubs.

358.            We welcome industry’s interest in young people and would like to see it extended, but we think that in most areas the best help can be given by contributing to, and taking part in, local activities rather than by creating a smaller group within the community. In particular we should not like to see industrial clubs limited to apprentices or other select groups, thus drawing off potential leadership from the local youth organisations. Both sides of industry can also make valuable contributions to the Youth Service, through service on youth committees, by finding for leadership or for the instruction of specialised groups, and by giving financial support to voluntary organisations. Firms can help by the loan of premises and recreational facilities when these are not otherwise in use.  We should like to see all employers and unions giving consideration to the help they might offer as part of a much-to-be-desired national re-awakening to the needs of the Youth Service.

359.            We would urge this same consideration on adult societies, especially on sports clubs and associations which, as we have indicated, have so much to offer that corresponds with the chief interests of the majority of young people. We would urge it also on all groups who have some interest they could share, some know-how or skill to hand on: naturalist societies, brass bands, photographic societies, gliding clubs, sketching and painting groups, pot-holers, to mention only a few of the manifold associations in which people meet together to pursue some interest and to enjoy the creative use of their leisure.

360.            We have stressed the need for many more voluntary helpers. We hope that all societies which take an interest in public affairs will find an opportunity to bring this requirement before their members; and that through the press, radio and television ordinary citizens will be made aware of the help they could give. We hope an appeal will be made to professional men and women, technicians, workers and gifted amateurs in sport, music, the arts and so forth, to help and advise groups; to those with a gift for gaining the confidence and affection of young people, to act as leaders; and to those who doubt their aptitudes for youth leadership, to give leaders that invaluable assistance without which they cannot do their work, for example, in canteen work, book-keeping, money-raising, caretaking and secretarial business. The help of the ordinary citizen is the most needed, and particularly during the next ten years of development when there is bound to be a shortage of trained leaders. Let no-one be held back by doubts of his ability or skill; a basic kindliness, a simple commonsense and unlimited patience are the most important qualities. The place of an adult in a club is that of a wise parent or, as one witness put it, “the most important role played by adult leaders and helpers is that of parental surrogates: their task is really family supplementation”. It is for this reason that the value of the right sort of husband and wife helping as a couple in and around the club is beyond all estimate. On the management side, too, the trend must be towards friendly and advisory interest, and ordinary citizens can act as “lightning conductors” and “strain-takers”, as one youth leader described the job.

361.            We have also made it clear that an expanded Youth Service will cost more, and that voluntary organisations will need to find more money to sustain their share in the partnership. We hope that charitable trusts will play a part here.  King George VI Foundation has done splendid work in helping voluntary bodies to train leaders and in providing facilities for the physical recreation of young people. Its work is likely to end in 1960. and the recipients of its grants will have expended them by the end of 1964. King George’s Jubilee Trust devotes all its resources to youth work and has been one of the mainstays of the voluntary youth organisations during the recent lean years. We hope that the appeal it has just announced will receive great support from the public, so that the work of the voluntary organisations can be developed to meet the new situation. But there are many other trusts and foundations, some of which have given help in the past and will, we hope, feel moved to re-enter the youth field at this vital juncture; others have never aided youth work and, if they have the power, we would ask them to consider what grants they might make to voluntary bodies during the period of development which we have recommended.

362.            On the other hand, most of the additional money required will have to be found from rates[38] and taxes, and the degree of public concern will be the touchstone here. We hope that the many pamphlets and reports, including our own, which have been published in the last year will have served to bring this important issue before the nation.

363.  What is required, however. above all on the part of the general public is an imaginative appreciation of the changed outlook of young people today. It is easy to condemn actions and attitudes which are innocuous in themselves simply because they differ from and so appear to offend against codes of behaviour or appearance which to the younger generation have become meaningless. Moral indignation is best kept for what is morally reprehensible, and even then will be ineffective unless it is deeply informed by sympathetic understanding. The effort to understand lies at the basis of all virtue; it is surely here that the nation can make a beginning.

 

CHAPTER 10: Recommendations and Priorities

 

364.            For convenience we give below a list of our main recommendations.

THE YOUTH SERVICE TOMORROW (CHAPTER 4)

(1) The Youth Service should be available for all young people aged 14 to 20 inclusive.

(Paragraphs 149—153.)

(2) The Minister of Education should initiate a ten-year development programme for the Youth Service, divided into two stages of five years each. For this period of development the Minister should appoint a small advisory committee, of not more than twelve persons, to be called the Youth Service Development Council. It should be composed of men and women who have special qualities and experience to offer, among whom at least two should have knowledge of the special problems of Wales. The Council members should not be appointed on a representative basis.

(Paragraph 157.)

(3) The Minister should make certain that his administrative arrangements will ensure that decisions on matters relating to the Service can be taken at an appropriately high level and can be implemented quickly.

(Paragraph 159.)

(4) Local education authorities should ensure that in each area and at least for the ten-year period of development, a sub-committee of the education committee itself (not a sub-committee of a sub-committee) is charged with responsibility for the Youth Service. This sub-committee should have the advice of an advisory committee with full representation from the voluntary organisations.

(Paragraphs 161—162.)

(5) Local education authorities, in consultation with voluntary organisations, should review and bring up to date their further education schemes, so far as these concern provision for the leisure of young people.

(Paragraph 163.)

(6) The Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations should work in the closest collaboration with the Development Council to strengthen and raise the standards of the voluntary partners in the Youth Service.

(Paragraph 167.)

(7) It is essential to develop the voluntary principle at every level of activity. And there should be a national campaign for more voluntary helpers, including people with skills to serve self-programming groups.

(Paragraphs 170 and 193.)

(8) Management Committees and Leaders should endeavour to establish supporters’ councils.

(Paragraph 172.)

(9) Young people should be given opportunities for participation as partners in the Youth Service, and particularly in the development of self-

programming groups.

(Paragraphs 173-176 and 193-195.)

ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES (CHAPTER 5)

(10) The Youth Service should offer young people opportunities for association, training and challenge.

(Paragraphs 183—219.)

(11) Local education authorities should encourage a range of activities for the physical recreation of young people, by helping initially with finance and loan of equipment, by providing coaching at convenient centres, and by recognising the contribution which can be made by established sports clubs and specialist groups.

(Paragraphs 197-198.)

(12) A generous and imaginative building programme is essential to rehabilitate the Youth Service and to equip it for the expansion that is called for. The Minister, through the development group of the Architects and Buildings Branch of the Ministry, should give attention to the design of premises for youth work; if necessary there should be an increase of staff for this purpose. Local education authorities, in consultation with voluntary organisations, should prepare development plans for their areas, when reviewing their schemes of further education.

(Paragraphs 224-225.)

(13) Local education authorities should allow for the needs of the Youth Service in planning new secondary schools and in the renovations which are entailed in the reorganisation of secondary education (e.g. by means of separate wings or buildings providing club facilities, and by the use of dual-purpose furniture).

(Paragraph 226.)

(14) The expansion of residential accommodation should have immediate attention.

(Paragraph 232.)

(15) There should be better furniture, lighting, decoration and equipment as well as better buildings for the Youth Service.

(Paragraph 233.)

(16) High priority should be given by Ministry, authorities and voluntary bodies, to remedying the general shortage of facilities for physical recreation, indoor and outdoor.

(Paragraphs 234—238.)

 

STAFFING AND TRAINING (CHAPTER 6)

(17) The Minister should set in hand long-term training arrangements for full-time leaders. For as many as possible there should be easy transfer from youth leadership to other professions. Full-time leaders should be recruited from three main categories: teachers, social workers, and mature persons with a natural gift for leadership. There should be four forms of training for the three categories of recruit, that included in the three-year teacher training courses; the three- or four-year courses for social workers; the three-month courses for those with professional qualifications recognised as suitable; and the one- and two-year courses for mature students.

(Paragraphs 247—258.)

(18) National voluntary organisations wishing to have their schemes of training for youth leaders recognised as providing a professional qualification, should submit their schemes to the Minister, who should obtain the advice Of the Development Council before recognising them.

(Paragraph 263.)

(19) The Minister should increase the number of his grants to meet the increased numbers of students who may be expected to take the courses for mature students; and should make special grants for trained social workers who will attend the three-month courses.

(Paragraph 264.)

(20) The Minister should take steps to increase the present force of 700 full-time leaders to a provisional one of 1,300 by 1966. An emergency training college should therefore be opened, offering a one-year course for men and women in youth leadership. The college should open not later than September, 1961, and sooner if possible; it should offer 90 places at least in the first year, rising to 140 in the later years of the five-year period.

(Paragraph 266 and Appendix 10.)

(21) The Minister should invite the appropriate Area Training Organisations to undertake the responsibility for supervising all recognised courses of training for youth leadership, and for recommending successful students for recognition by the Minister as qualified leaders.

(Paragraph 275.)

(22) Local education authorities should recommend to the Minister, for recognition as qualified by experience, those full-time leaders already in post who have completed five years of full-time service as youth leaders to the satisfaction of the authorities.

(Paragraph 276.)

(23) The Minister should appoint a day after which no new entrant to full-time youth leadership shall be able to claim qualification by experience alone.

(Paragraph 276.)

(24) The Minister should appoint a committee to negotiate scales of salaries and to review superannuation arrangements; it should be representative of statutory and voluntary employing bodies and of leaders employed by both types of body. A rough parallel is the existing Committee on Scales of Salaries for the Teaching Staff of Training Colleges (the Pelham Committee).

(Paragraphs 279—285.)

(25) Local education authorities should increase the number of part-time paid leaders, where such appointments are justified by genuine need the pay of these leaders should match the quality of the job. After 1966 many more authorities should be able to appoint teachers specifically to spend half their time in schools and half in club leadership.

(Paragraph 287.)

(26) Local education authorities and voluntary organisations should, in close co-operation, organise schemes of part-time training for part-time leaders, paid and voluntary.

(Paragraph 289.)

(27) Local education authorities should have flexible arrangements for the provision of paid instructors for youth clubs, groups and units.

(Paragraph 292.)

(28) Local education authorities who do not employ Youth Service officers, or the equivalent, should review their need for such appointments.

(Paragraphs 294-297.)

FINANCE (CHAPTER 7)

(29) The Minister should offer two kinds of grant to national voluntary bodies under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939:

(i) basic grants towards headquarters administration and training expenses amounting normally to not more than 75 per cent. of the whole cost of such provision for the 14—20 age range as may be accepted by the Ministry for grant purposes;

(ii) special grants, particularly for experimental or pioneering work in respect of the 14—20 age range

 

Servicing organisations without a specific membership should be eligible for special grants.

(Paragraphs 303—306.)

(30) The Minister should end the anomaly inherent in his policy concerning grants to national voluntary bodies with denominational allegiances; the sole criterion should be the value of the social and educational work which they are doing for young people in the 14—20 age range.

(Paragraph 307.)

(31) The Minister should consider the extent to which he can extend his grants for the training of professional youth leaders, particularly if any part of the cost of an emergency training scheme is to be met by his direct grants.

(Paragraph 308.)

(32) The Minister should. after the first five-year development period, cease to make capital grants to local voluntary bodies under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939.

(Paragraph 309.)

(33) Local education authorities should exercise their powers fully under the Education Act, 1944, to make capital grants to voluntary youth groups, particularly when Ministry grants cease after the first five-year development period.

(Paragraph 309.)

(34) The Minister should remove altogether the present ceiling of £5,000 on capital grants to local voluntary bodies under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939, and also in respect of any capital grant under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937, for a project especially designed to benefit young people in the 14—20 age range as well as those who are older.

(Paragraphs 310 and 315.)

(35) The Minister should expand his provision for grants in aid of coaching schemes administered by the governing bodies of sport.

(Paragraph 314.)

(36) The Minister should ensure that additional expenditure on the Youth Service by local education authorities is matched by central grants, either in the form of additional general grants or by separate percentage grants.

(Paragraph 317.)

(37) The Minister should revise his capital investment control arrangements to enable authorities to proceed with individual proposals for Youth Service premises costing more than £20,000. The Minister should also ensure that authorities have sufficient allocation for “minor works” to enable them to make the necessary provision for the Youth Service.

(Paragraphs 318—319.)

(38) Local education authorities should give greater and more consistent financial support to those local voluntary bodies which merit it.

(Paragraph 320.)

(39) Local education authorities should ensure that there is adequate administrative and clerical staff for their Youth Service departments, so that trained organisers can be kept in the field.

(Paragraph 321.)

(40) The Minister should draw the attention of all local authorities, including minor authorities, to their powers to make grants and loans under the Physical Training and Recreation Acts, 1937 and 1958, and to the desirability of using them for the benefit of young people in the 14—20 age range.

(Paragraph 323.)

(41) The Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations should urge all national voluntary youth organisations to commend to their affiliated members the proposal that supporters’ councils and management committees should relieve skilled leaders of the burden of raising money and thus allow them to concentrate on giving practical help to young people.

(Paragraph 326.)

(42) The Minister should ask local education authorities to review the charges which they make in the youth clubs and centres which they maintain.

(Paragraph 328.)

(43) The Standing Conference should urge its members to arrange for a similar review of charges.

(Paragraph 328.)

THE YOUTH SERVICE AND SOCIETY (CHAPTER 9)

(44) Local education authorities and voluntary organisations should consider what approaches they can make to those young people who find it difficult to come to terms with society. The Youth Service Development Council should collect and collate the results of such research and experiment.

(Paragraph 356.)

PRIORITIES

365.            Our terms of reference require us to advise “according to what priorities best value can be obtained for the money spent”.  In so doing we must draw attention to two important features of the recommendations we have just listed. The first is that they all depend for their success on one cardinal assumption: that the Government intends to make the Youth Service adequate to the needs of young people today. This, then, seems to us to command the highest priority of all; if the Youth Service is to be enabled to produce a generous return for the money spent, the Minister must declare it his policy to advance the Service. The second feature is that many of our recommendations are inter-dependent and that the development of the various aspects of the work needs to be synchronised; there is no point in considering unilateral development which cannot be properly serviced: for example, better facilities without the leaders to ensure they are used well, more leaders without an expansion of training, or training arrangements without the prospects of satisfactory conditions of service and a career structure to attract the recruits. We believe therefore that the Youth Service needs to advance on all fronts, but that once this policy is accepted there are broad financial priorities which can reasonably be applied.

366.            The first of these priorities should be the setting in hand of arrangements for both the emergency and the long-term training of professional leaders. The former is urgently required to make good present deficiencies and prepare for the increasing numbers of young people in the early 1960s.  The latter equally needs immediate attention in order to produce results in time for the second five-year period of development in the middle 1960s.  However, we are convinced that enough recruits of quality will be attracted to emergency and long-term training courses only if the Minister appoints a negotiating committee for salaries and conditions of service. The Minister should also set up the Youth Service Development Council at once. in order to have its advice at the vital early stages. He should ask local education authorities without delay to bring their further education schemes up to date and expand, in consultation with the voluntary organisations, their arrangements for the training of part-time paid and voluntary leaders.  We therefore recommend that these measures be taken immediately.

367.            Next, we think there should be material improvements, planned and phased, in every sector of the Youth Service field. The Minister should at an early date urge local education authorities to see that their expenditure on maintained and aided services is sufficient to sustain the momentum of development; and at the same time he should expand his own aid to national voluntary bodies, particularly in the form of special grants for pioneering work of direct significance to an expanding service. In the first five years we hope to see considerable extension of premises and facilities for the Youth Service, improvised if necessary, but this provision will chiefly be of an experimental nature. We have indicated elsewhere that in the second five-year period there should be a substantial amount of carefully planned building. In our view, such development if phased for the ten-year period 1960—1970, could be adequately serviced through the training arrangements we have already recommended.

368.            We do not feel we can give any more detailed guidance on priorities at this juncture. Much needs to be learnt in the light of experience, and it is for this reason above all that we have recommended the setting up of a Development Council. The Minister will need the advice of such a body if the Youth Service is to be re-fashioned in order to match the progress made in other branches of education.

______________________

369.            It has been of great benefit to us to have Mr. R. D. Salter Davies, H.M.I. and Mr. E. B. H. Baker of the Ministry of Education with us at our meetings. Their expert advice has been of much help to us. To our Secretary, Mr. E. J. Sidebottom, H.M.I., to Mr. E. B. Granshaw and to the clerical staff we wish to express our gratitude for their enthusiastic and devoted service. In our anxiety to complete our enquiry in the shortest time possible we have made great demands upon them and they have never failed us. We have indeed been most fortunate in our secretariat.

(Signed)            Diana Albemarle (Chairman).

Dennis Vosper.

Michael Clapham.

Richard Hoggart.

Denis H. Howell.

Roy A. Jackson.

Pearl Jephcott.

John Marsh.

Leslie Paul.

Eric A. Shipman.

Arthur G. Watkins.

James Welch.

Ethel M. Wormald.

 

22nd October, 1959.

 

 

APENDICIES

APPENDIX 1 – List of bodies who submitted written evidence to the Committee

List of bodies who submitted written evidence to the Committee: where this was amplified by oral evidence the names and descriptions of witnesses are given

Army Cadet Force Association

  • Col. R. D. Sherbrooke-walker, T.D., D.L., Vice-Chairman.
  • Mr. W. F. L. Newcombe, O.B.E., T.D., General Secretary.

Association of Chief Education Officers

  • Mr. E. G. Barnard, Chief Education Officer, Portsmouth.
  • Dr. F. Lincoln Ralphs, Chief Education Officer, Norfolk.

Association of Chief Police Officers of England and Wales
Association of Education Committees

  • Alderman R. S. Butterfield, Chairman, North Riding Education Committee.
  • Mr. J. Longland, Director of Education, Derbyshire.
  • Dr. W. P. Alexander, Secretary.

Association of Education Officers

  • Mr. W. G. Stone, Director of Education, Brighton.
  • Dr. L. F. W. White, Divisional Education Officer, Gosport.
  • Mr. H. S. Magnay, Director of Education, Liverpool.

Association for Jewish Youth
Association of Municipal Corporations

  • Alderman T. J. Brennan, Ealing Borough Council.
  • Mr. S. R. Hutton, Chief Education Officer, Southport.
  • Mr. K. P. Poole, Assistant Secretary.

BOV Brigade

Boy Scouts Association

  • Mr. A. W. Hurll, Chief Executive Commissioner.
  • Mr. E. G. Neate.

Brathay Exploration Group
British Council of Churches

  • Mr. P. Race, Chairman, British Council of Churches Youth Department.
  • The Rt. Rev. W. L. Fleming, Bishop of Portsmouth, Chairman, Church of England Youth Council.
  • Miss Rachel Hadow, General Secretary, Church of England Youth Council.
  • The Rev. Bryan Read, General Secretary, Methodist Youth Department.
  • Miss Nina Borelli, Secretary. British Council of Churches Youth Department.

British Employers’ Confederation
British Red Cross Society
Central Council of Physical Recreation

  • Miss P. C. Colson, O.B.E., General Secretary.
  • Mr. H. Justin Evans, M.B.E., Deputy Secretary.
  • Mr. G. A. McPardin, Senior Technical Adviser.

Church Army

Church of England Youth Council

Church Lads* Brigade

Combined Cadet Force Association

Concordia Limited

Co-operative Youth Movement

Council of Churches for Wales, Youth Department

County Councils Association

  • Capt. Sir Oflley Wakeman, Bt., C.B.E., D.L., Chairman, Education Committee, Shropshire County Council.
  • Miss M. O’Conor, O.B.E., Chairman, Education Committee, Isle of Wight County Council.
  • Mr. W. J. Bennett, C.B.E., Member, Education Committee, Essex County Council.
  • Mr. D. E. Cooke, M.C., Chief Education Officer, Buckinghamshire County Council.
  • Mr. L. W. K. Brown.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme
Girls’ Friendly Society
Girl Guides Association

  • Miss A. Gibbs, Chief Commissioner and Chairman.
  • Miss H. A. Toft, General Secretary.

Girls’ Guildry

Girls’ Life Brigade

Grail, The

Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools

Institute of Christian Education at Home and Overseas

Joint Committee of the Four Secondary Associations

King George’s Jubilee Trust

London County Council

  • Mr. H. Shearman, Chairman, Education Committee.
  • Mrs. M. Cole, Chairman, Further Education Sub-Committee.
  • Mr. R. McKinnon Wood, O.B.E., Vice-Chairman, Further Education Sub-Committee.
  • Mr. W. F. Houghton, Education Officer.

Methodist Association of Youth Clubs

Ministry of Education, Northern Ireland

Ministry of Labour, Central Youth Employment Executive

National and Local Government Officers’ Association

National Association of Boys Clubs

  • Admiral The Hon. Sir Guy Russell, G.B.E., K.C.B., D.S.O., Chairman.
  • Mr. H. A. Secretan, C.B.E., J.P., Vice-Chairman.
  • Sir Basil Henriques, C.B.E., J.P., Vice-Chairman.
  • Mr. Leslie Tait.
  • Mr. R. E. Goodwin, D.L., General Secretary.

National Association of Divisional Executives for Education

National Association for Mental Health

National Association of Mixed Clubs and Girls’ Clubs

  • Lady Helen Smith, Vice-Chairman.
  • Mr. Dennis Frost, General Secretary and Training Officer of Welsh Association.
  • Miss E. L. Sewell, General Secretary.

National Association of Probation Officers

National Association of Training Corps for Girls

National Association of Youth Leaders and Organisers

National Association of Youth Service Officers

  • Mr. L. A. Button, Chairman.
  • Mr. C. Daimond, Vice-Chairman.
  • Mr. G. Ette, Hon. Treasurer.

National Catholic Youth Association

National Federation of Community Associations

National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs

National Marriage Guidance Council

National Playing Fields Association

National Union of Teachers

  • Mr. S. W. Exworthy, J.P., Vice-President.
  • Dr. C. E. Clarkson, Member, Union Executive.
  • Mr. R. G. K. Hickman, Assistant Secretary.

Royal College of Nursing

St. John Ambulance Brigade

Salvation Army

Scottish Education Department

Sea Cadet Corps

Standing Conference of National Voluntary Youth Organisations

  • Professor N. Haycocks, Chairman.
  • Miss D. Carroll, Vice-Chairman.
  • Mr. W. F. L. Newcombe, O.B.E., T.D., Vice-chairman.
  • Mr. R. W. J. Keeble, Secretary.

Standing Conference for Wales of Youth Organisations

  • The Hon. J. H. Bruce, C.B.E., D.L., J.P., Chairman.
  • Dr. William Thomas, C.B., Director, Council of Social Service for Wales and Monmouthshire.
  • Mr. R. E. Roberts, National Secretary for Wales of the Y.M.C.A.

Trades Union Congress

University College of Swansea

  • Professor C. E. Gittins.
  • Mr. Jeffreys Jones.

Welsh Association of Training Corps for Girls

Welsh Joint Education Committee

  • Mrs. Loti Rees Hughes, Chairman, Further Education Sub-Committee.
  • Mr. Owen Jones, Technical Education Officer.
  • Mr. Jeffreys Jones, Tutor, University College, Swansea.

Welsh League of Youth

  • Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards.
  • Mr. R. E. Griffith.

Westhill Training College

Women’s Group on Public Welfare

Young Christian Workers

Young Men’s Christian Association

Young Women’s Christian Association

Youth Hostels Association

 

APPENDIX 2 – Grants offered under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulation, 1939, to national voluntary youth organisations

Organisation 1951-2 1952-3 1953-4 1964-5 1955-6 1956-7 1957-8 1958-9 1959-60
Army Cadet Force Association £1,200.00 £1,080.00 £1,080.00 £1,080.00 £1,080.00 £1,080.00 £1,080.00 £1,080.00 £1,080.00
Association for Jewish Youth £500.00 £450.00 £450.00 £450.00 £450.00 £450.00 £450.00 £450.00 £500.00
Boys’ Brigade £2,500.00 £2,250.00 £2,250.00 £2,250.00 £2,250.00 £2,250.00 £2,250.00 £2,250.00 £2,500.00
Boy Scout Association £7,000.00 £5,600.00 £5,600.00 £5,600.00 £5,600.00 £5,600.00 £5,600.00 £5,600.00 £7,000.00
British Council of Churches £650.00 £490.00 £490.00 £490.00 £490.00 £490.00 £490.00 £490.00 £490.00
Church Lads’ Brigade £1,100.00 £990.00 £990.00 £990.00 £990.00 £990.00 £990.00 £990.00 £1,100.00
Central Council of Physical Recreation £59,760.00 £59,920.00 £59,200.00 £56,000.00 £58,024.00 £66,297.00 £79,128.00 – -[1]
Concordia (Youth Service Volunteers) Ltd £404.00 £390.00 £554.00 £1,240.00 £1,456.00 £1,434.00 £1,000.00 £500.00 £500.00
Co-operative Union (Youth Department) £500.00 £450.00 £450.00 £337.00 £450.00 – £450.00 £450.00 £450.00
Girls’ Friendly Society £3,000.00 £2,550.00 £2,550.00 £2,550.00 £2,550.00 £2,550.00 £2,550.00 £2,550.00 £3,000.00
Girl Guides Association £7,600.00 £6,080.00 £6,080.00 £6,080.00 £6,080.00 £6,080.00 £6,080.00 £6,100.00 £7,600.00
Girl Guides Training Centre “Broneiron” Llandinam £700.00 £630.00 £630.00 £630.00 £630.00 £630.00 £750.00 £750.00 £750.00
Girls’ Guildry (England) £800.00 £600.00 £600.00 £600.00 £600.00 £600.00 £600.00 £600.00 £800.00
Girls’ Guildry (Wales) £200.00 £150.00 £113.00 £113.00 – – – – –
Girls’ Life Brigade – – – – – – – – £500.00
National Association of Boys’ Clubs £20,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £22,000.00
National Association of Mixed Clubs and Girls’ Clubs £20,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £18,000.00 £19,250.00 £18,000.00 £18,250.00 £18,250.00 £22,000.00
National Association of Training Corps for Girls £16,717.00 £16,717.00 £16,063.00 £15,762.00 £15,233.00 £14,500.00 £14,000.00 £11,500.00 £11,500.00
National Council of Social Services – – £250.00 £250.00 £450.00 £450.00 £750.00 £750.00 £1,000.00
National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs[2] £12,900.00 £17,200.00 £17,200.00 £17,200.00 £17,936.00 £18,535.00 £17,800.00 £17,200.00 £15,000.00
St. John’s Ambulance Brigade Cadets £2,000.00 £1,800.00 £1,800.00 £1,800.00 £1,800.00 £1,800.00 £1,800.00 £1,800.00 £1,800.00
Training Ship “Foudroyant” – £1,064.00 £1,000.00 £1,000.00 £1,000.00 £2,500.00 £1,000.00 £1,870.00 £1,000.00
Welsh League of Youth £5,200.00 £4,480.00 £4,420.00 £4,420.00 £4,420.00 £4,420.00 £4,420.00 £4,420.00 £5,200.00
World Assembly of Youth (British National Committee)… £2,000.00 £2,000.00 – – – – – – –
Young Christian Workers £250.00 – £225.00 £225.00 £225.00 – £210.00 £225.00 –
Young Men’s Christian Association £8,500.00 £6,375.00 £6,375.00 £6,375.00 £6,375.00 £6,375.00 £6,375.00 £6,375.00 £9,000.00
Young Women’s Christian Association £9,000.00 £6,750.00 £6,750.00 £6,750.00 £6,000.00 £5,000.00 £5,000.00 £5,000.00 £7,000.00
[1][1] 50 per cent. of this grant is paid by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on the Agriculture and Food Services Vote.
[1][2] From 1958-59 grants to the Central Council of Physical Recreation have been made entirely under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937.

In earlier years the C.C.P.R grant was made partly under this Act and partly under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations.

The amount shown between the years 1951-52 and 1957-58 represents only the amount offered under the Regulations

 

 

APPENDIX 3 – Total grants from the Ministry under the Social and Physical Training Grant Regulations, 1939

 

Year National voluntary youth organisations[39] Establishments for the training of youth leaders Individual youth groups (mainly clubs) Total payments

£

£

£

£
1946-47

151,186

4,756

116,349

272,291
1947-48

162,946

1,178

110,560

274,684
1948-49

180,434

1,996

115,369

297,803
1949-50

179,479

3,385

128,301

311,165
1950-51

170,478

5,284

90,532

266,294
1951-52

180,160

4,814

79,193

264,167
1952-53

163,278

4,466

44,828

212,572
1953-54

164,324

3,807

23,680

191,811
1954-55

160,663

2,835

23,983

187,481
1955-56

160,249

3,714

26,477

190,440
1956-57

168,328

5,236

84,815

258,379
1957-58

184,764

5,378

127,630

317,771
1958-59

93,904[40]

8,051

122,760

224,715

 

 

APPENDIX 4 – Statistical information supplied by local education authorities in England and Wales for the financial year 1957-58

Division Area Estimated population of 15-20s in L.E.A’s area 1957-58* Centres fully maintained by L.E.A  Expenditure on column 3 Number of youth officers/ organisers employed by L.E.A** Number of youth leaders employed by L.E.A.  Expenditure on columns 5, 6 and 7 Number of full-time leaders employed by voluntary bodies whose salary is aided by L.E.A Number of youth groups assisted financially by L.E.A  Expenditure on assistance to individual youth groups  Expenditure on assistance to county or local headquarters of voluntary organisations  Expenditure on training  Total expenditure including other forms not shown in previous columns*** Estimated expenditure per head of population of 15-20 age group
Full-time Part- time  
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
NORTHERN DIVISION CUMBERLAND 15227 1  £    1,317.00 2 – –  £  1,805.00 5 24  £  2,410.00  £     825.00  £   190.00  £    7,646.00 10 0
NORTHERN DIVISION Carlisle C.B. 5700 10  £    1,209.00 1 – 17  £  2,535.00 3 6  £     107.00  £   1,216.00  £   104.00  £    5,725.00 20 0
NORTHERN DIVISION DURHAM 50000 –  – 7 – 89  £10,355.00 2 82  £  7,760.00  £   1,958.00  £   309.00  £  21,772.00 8 6
NORTHERN DIVISION Darlington C.B. 7540 7  £    6,900.00 1 1 6  £  3,176.00 – –  £     100.00  –  £     70.00  £  10,366.00 27 6
NORTHERN DIVISION Gateshead C.B. 9247 2  – 1 – 2  £  1,200.00 4 17  £  1,212.00  –  £   101.00  £    3,319.00 7 0
NORTHERN DIVISION South Shields C.B. 9250 5  – 1 – 5  £  1,899.00 – –  £     437.00  £       90.00  £   130.00  £    7,046.00 15 0
NORTHERN DIVISION Sunderland C.B. 16500 1  £      857.00 1 1 –  £  1,415.00 4 19  £  1,491.00  –  £     69.00  £    4,223.00 5 0
NORTHERN DIVISION West Hartlepool C.B. 6000 6  £    1,648.00 1 – 61  £  4,493.00 1 3  £     749.00  –  £     91.00  £    6,981.00 23 0
NORTHERN DIVISION NORTHUMBERLAND 38000 –  – 2 – –  £  2,654.00 8 74  £11,804.00  £   2,774.00  £   813.00  £  24,257.00 12 6
NORTHERN DIVISION Newcastle upon Tyne C.B. 24000 –  – 1 – –  £  1,395.00 11 51  £  7,430.00  £   3,392.00  £   174.00  £  16,502.00 13 6
NORTHERN DIVISION Tynemouth C.B. 4680 –  – 0.5 – –  £     505.00 – 12  £  1,500.00  £       15.00  £     20.00  £    2,083.00 9 0
NORTHERN DIVISION WESTMORELAND 4500 2  £      458.00 1 – 1  £  1,212.00 2 6  £     650.00  –  £     45.00  £    2,683.00 12 0
NORTHERN DIVISION YORKS, NORTH RIDING 25100 9  £    7,048.00 – 6 8  £  8,391.00 1 6  £  1,405.00  £   1,925.00  £1,035.00  £  19,804.00 15 6
NORTHERN DIVISION Middlesbrough C.B. 13500 –  – 1 2 1  £  1,906.00 1 14  £  5,244.00  –  £   140.00  £    7,909.00 11 6
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS YORKS E.R. 15000 17  – 1 – 35  £  5,575.00 2 40  £  1,035.00  £   1,220.00  £   172.00  £    8,638.00 11 6
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Kingston upon Hull C.B. 25775 11  £  19,040.00 1 – 22  £  4,935.00 1 8  £     930.00  –  £     78.00  £  27,826.00 21 6
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS York C.B. 10000 6  £    6,770.00 1 1 45  £  5,175.00 3 9  £  2,101.00  £     150.00  £   100.00  £  14,628.00 29 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS YORKS W.R. 151683 –  – 14 9 125  £30,054.00 1 420  £11,943.00  £   1,716.00  £2,293.00  £  47,001.00 6 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Barnsley C.B. 6359 7  – 1 – 21  £  3,700.00 1 7  £     825.00  £       50.00  £      3.00  £  11,117.00 35 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Bradford C.B. 21000 2  – 0.5 – 22  £  3,220.00 1 11  £     846.00  £     896.00  £   363.00  £    9,635.00 9 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Dewsbury C.B. 4250 –  – – – –  – – 6  £     605.00  –  –  £      605.00 3 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Doncaster C.B. 6000 4  £    3,268.00 1 – 34  £  1,813.00 1 15  £  3,790.00  –  £     65.00  £    9,055.00 30 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Halifax C.B. 6650 5  – 1 – 8  £  2,413.00 1 5  £     328.00  –  £   233.00  £    6,556.00 19 6
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Huddersfield C.B. 6500 8  £    2,857.00 1 6 20  £11,279.00 – 13  £  1,680.00  £     375.00  £   100.00  £  16,591.00 51 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Leeds C.B. 39000 16  £    4,457.00 1 1 151  £16,601.00 9 15  £  6,127.00  –  £   794.00  £  28,279.00 14 6
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Rotherham C.B 7200 6  – 1 – 72  £  7,131.00 – 16  £     262.00  £     130.00  £     20.00  £  14,203.00 39 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Sheffield C.B. 35000 12  £    1,400.00 2 2 10  £  4,650.00 10 27  £  2,800.00  £   1,415.00  £   230.00  £  28,230.00 16 0
YORKS – EAST AND WEST RIDINGS Wakefield C.B. 4189 2  – 1 – 1  £     925.00 1 4  £     570.00  –  £     82.00  £    2,722.00 13 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION CHESHIRE 59500 –  – 1 – –  £  1,150.00 4 22  £  2,514.00  £     450.00  £   134.00  £    4,248.00 1 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Birkenhead C.B. 14500 1  £    1,190.00 1 – –  £  1,450.00 3 58  £  3,150.00  –  £   130.00  £    7,660.00 10 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Chester C.B. 4000 4  £      923.00 1 – 3  £     938.00 – 12  £     123.00  £     210.00  £     68.00  £    2,456.00 12 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Stockport C.B. 10500 7  £  11,857.00 1 – 108  £  9,406.00 1 6  £  2,011.00  –  £   435.00  £  24,370.00 26 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Wallasey C.B. 7109 4  £      740.00 1 – –  £  1,025.00 – 13  £     300.00  –  £     62.00  £    2,532.00 7 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION LANCASHIRE 157500 51  £    6,062.00 3 – 90  £  7,262.00 6 40  £  2,759.00  £   1,196.00  £   508.00  £  17,787.00 2
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Barrow/Furness C.B 5313 –  – 1 – –  £  1,150.00 – 54  £  2,204.00  –  £     10.00  £    3,724.00 14 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Blackburn C.B. 8000 –  – – – –  – – 18  £  2,468.00  £     455.00  £   200.00  £    4,416.00 11 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Blackpool C.B. 6756 7  – 2 – 25  £  4,275.00 – 12  £     523.00  £       29.00  £     75.00  £    7,712.00 21 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Bolton C.B. 12000 5  – 1 – 30  £  3,189.00 3 17  £  2,906.00  £     210.00  £   135.00  £    8,245.00 13 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Bootle C.B. 8000 –  – – – –  – – 4  £      71.00  £       10.00  –  £      611.00 1 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Burnley C.B. 6000 2  £      603.00 1 – 4  £  1,300.00 1 17  £     952.00  £       10.00  –  £    2,865.00 9 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Bury C.B. 4619 3  £        90.00 – – 6  £     680.00 – 4  £      90.00  –  –  £    1,070.00 4 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Liverpool C.B. 65000 –  – 2 – –  £  2,934.00 30 183  £10,936.00  £ 10,692.00  £1,056.00  £  26,294.00 8 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Manchester C.B. 53705 26  £  29,750.00 1 – 45  £  9,281.00 6 845  £  2,047.00  £   1,685.00  £   562.00  £  43,695.00 16 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Oldham C.B. 8638 3  – 1 2 4  £  2,848.00 – 13  £      62.00  £       66.00  £     45.00  £    6,606.00 15 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Preston C.B. 11000 1  £      307.00 1 – 50  £  1,942.00 – 35  £     730.00  –  £   331.00  £    3,853.00 7 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Rochdale C.B 6675 1  £    1,593.00 1 – 4  £     780.00 – 17  £  1,200.00  £         5.00  £   410.00  £    6,665.00 20 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION St. Helens C.B. 9500 –  – 1 – –  £     763.00 – 5  £     345.00  –  £   145.00  £    2,051.00 4 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Salford C.B. 15706 4  £    2,248.00 1 – 28  £  3,102.00 – 138  £  2,314.00  –  £   250.00  £    8,214.00 10 6
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Southport C.B. 5286 5  £    3,931.00 1 – 70  £  4,687.00 – –  £        6.00  –  £     34.00  £    8,975.00 34 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Warrington C.B 6200 –  – 1 – –  – 4 35  £     399.00  £         5.00  £     67.00  £    1,291.00 4 0
NORTH WESTERN DIVISION Wigan C.B. 7150 –  – 1 – –  £     643.00 3 19  £  1,158.00  £     127.00  £     50.00  £    2,193.00 6 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION DERBYSHIRE 48293 15  £    6,384.00 5 4 69  £16,674.00 – 175  £  3,927.00  £     800.00  £2,935.00  £  41,757.00 17 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION Derby C.B. 10547 15  – 1 – 66  £  6,112.00 1 5  £     201.00  £       50.00  £     74.00  £    8,152.00 15 6
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION LEICESTERSHIRE 31100 –  – 5 – 28  £  9,882.00 3 95  £  2,347.00  £     800.00  £   378.00  £  13,990.00 9 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION Leicester C.B. 19071 16  £  17,025.00 1 – 35  £  5,480.00 2 114  £  3,472.00  £     632.00  £   129.00  £  26,738.00 28 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION LINCS. (HOLLAND) 7581 –  – – – –  – 2 15  £  1,439.00  £       10.00  £     32.00  £    1,481.00 4 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION LINCS. (KESTEVEN)… 6000 –  – 1 – –  £     949.00 2 8  £     655.00  £     585.00  –  £    2,711.00 9 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION LINCS. (LINDSEY) 24000 –  – 2 – 18  £  3,875.00 5 157  £  4,778.00  £   1,386.00  £   476.00  £  10,763.00 9 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION Grimsby C.B. 6300 –  – – – –  £      20.00 2 4  £     450.00  £     175.00  £     20.00  £      701.00 2 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION Lincoln C.B. 5518 2  £    1,320.00 1 1 12  £  1,382.00 1 7  £     115.00  £       25.00  £     28.00  £    3,402.00 12 0
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 20250 7  £    9,429.00 4.5 1 9  £  4,561.00 1 15  £     287.00  £     329.00  £   157.00  £  14,763.00 14 6
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION Northampton C.B. 7500 –  – 1 – –  £     850.00 4 12  £     800.00  £     797.00  £   335.00  £    2,782.00 7 6
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 42360 –  £      850.00 5 – –  £  4,902.00 6 91  £  6,150.00  £     680.00  £   317.00  £  13,529.00 6 6
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION Nottingham C.B. 25000 12  £    1,286.00 2 4 29  £  3,901.00 15 60  £  7,383.00  £   1,268.00  £   256.00  £  25,869.00 20 6
NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION RUTLAND – –  – – – –  – – 6  £      59.00  £       30.00  £     63.00  £      152.00 – –
MIDLAND DIVISION HEREFORDSHIRE 8000 8  – 1 4 4  £  7,794.00 2 40  £  2,451.00  £   1,300.00  £   259.00  £  11,804.00 29 6
MIDLAND DIVISION SHROPSHIRE 22400 6  £    1,585.00 5 3 –  £  8,447.00 1 7  £  1,078.00  £   1,563.00  £1,440.00  £  15,242.00 13 6
MIDLAND DIVISION STAFFORDSHIRE 54714 16  £  11,420.00 9 3 110  £25,365.00 – 525  £12,858.00  £     700.00  £2,585.00  £  61,483.00 21 6
MIDLAND DIVISION Burton-upon-Trent C.B. 4067 4  £    1,160.00 0.5 – 7  £     810.00 – 3  £      23.00  –  £     25.00  £    2,293.00 11 0
MIDLAND DIVISION Smethwick C.B. 7809 1  – 1 – –  £     960.00 – 5  £     160.00  £     110.00  £   152.00  £    1,459.00 3 6
MIDLAND DIVISION Stoke-upon-Trent C.B. 25000 31  – 3 2 65  £13,550.00 – 7  £     430.00  £   1,231.00  £   501.00  £  30,967.00 24 6
MIDLAND DIVISION Walsall C.B. 9000 1  – 1 – 70  £  2,730.00 1 12  £  1,218.00  £     269.00  £     31.00  £    4,524.00 10 0
MIDLAND DIVISION West Bromwich C.B. 7200 10  £    1,125.00 – – 18  £     691.00 – 7  £      83.00  –  £     10.00  £    2,120.00 6 0
MIDLAND DIVISION Wolverhampton C.B. 11000 10  £    3,600.00 0.5 – 10  £  1,700.00 4 8  £  3,800.00  £     250.00  £   257.00  £  10,697.00 19 0
MIDLAND DIVISION WARWICKSHIRE 40000 11  £    5,244.00 6 – 73  £  9,258.00 1 28  £     928.00  £   1,775.00  £1,755.00  £  20,437.00 10 0
MIDLAND DIVISION Birmingham C.B. 100000 6  – 1 – 100  £13,190.00 9 29  £  3,116.00  –  £1,986.00  £  48,227.00 9 6
MIDLAND DIVISION Coventry C.B. 19801 12  £    1,134.00 2 4 82  £  8,369.00 1 81  £      86.00  –  £   174.00  £    9,833.00 10 0
MIDLAND DIVISION WORCESTERSHIRE 35542 26  £    6,956.00 2 4 25  £  7,757.00 – 136  £  1,650.00  –  £   455.00  £  18,316.00 11 0
MIDLAND DIVISION Dudley C.B. 5000 1  £      288.00 – – 2  £     184.00 – 6  £     165.00  £       30.00  £     20.00  £    1,137.00 4 6
MIDLAND DIVISION Worcester C.B. 4500 2  – – 1 10  £  4,704.00 2 10  £      98.00  £     467.00  £     17.00  £    5,516.00 24 6
EASTERN DIVISION BEDFORDSHIRE 25600 21  £    5,047.00 2 1 83  £  7,716.00 – 17  £  2,849.00  £     550.00  £   133.00  £  20,971.00 16 6
EASTERN DIVISION CAMBRIDGESHIRE 11750 50  £    4,970.00 1 4 59  £  6,998.00 – 8  £      35.00  £     504.00  £     11.00  £  12,763.00 21 6
EASTERN DIVISION ESSEX 107000 130  £143,471.00 19 30 538  £77,526.00 6 89  £  7,209.00  –  £1,300.00  £250,538.00 47 0
EASTERN DIVISION East Ham C.B. 7906 3  £    6,482.00 1 2 27  £  5,930.00 2 55  £  3,253.00  –  £     20.00  £  16,010.00 40 6
EASTERN DIVISION Southend-on-Sea C.B. 10600 1  £    2,025.00 1 1 –  £  1,955.00 – 10  £     535.00  –  £     23.00  £    6,193.00 11 6
EASTERN DIVISION West Ham C.B. 12894 4  £    2,664.00 1 – 19  £  3,042.00 5 16  £     858.00  –  £     41.00  £    7,443.00 11 6
EASTERN DIVISION HERTFORDSHIRE 43500 –  – 2 – –  £  2,000.00 – 72  £  8,960.00  £   1,000.00  £   455.00  £  12,415.00 5 6
EASTERN DIVISION HUNTINGDONSHIRE 4300 6  £    3,129.00 3 – 6  £  4,520.00 – 23  £  1,321.00  £     310.00  £     18.00  £  10,194.00 47 6
EASTERN DIVISION ISLE OF ELY 6810 4  £    1,737.00 1 – 11  £  1,847.00 – 5  £     159.00  £       50.00  £     48.00  £    4,731.00 14 0
EASTERN DIVISION NORFOLK 24500 16  £    4,904.00 7.5 – 48  £10,779.00 – 152  £     497.00  £   1,089.00  £2,140.00  £  19,509.00 16 0
EASTERN DIVISION Great Yarmouth C.B. 4000 1  £    1,607.00 1 2 –  £  1,773.00 – 13  £      50.00  £       99.00  £     79.00  £    3,689.00 18 6
EASTERN DIVISION Norwich C.B. 9266 7  £    1,656.00 1 – 63  £  5,555.00 – 12  £     169.00  £     820.00  £   242.00  £  11,538.00 25 0
EASTERN DIVISION SOKE OF PETERBOROUGH 5340 1  £      880.00 1 – –  £     970.00 – 25  £     744.00  £     185.00  £     33.00  £    2,887.00 11 0
EASTERN DIVISION Suffolk (East) 14156 11  £    5,690.00 3 5 5  £  7,608.00 2 6  £     110.00  £   1,200.00  £   882.00  £  15,740.00 22 0
EASTERN DIVISION Ipswich C.B. 9500 9  £    2,455.00 1 – 9  £  3,861.00 – 15  £     315.00  £       80.00  £     75.00  £    7,112.00 15 0
EASTERN DIVISION SUFFOLK (WEST) 7900 9  £      825.00 0.5 – 13  £  1,130.00 – 26  £     997.00  £     340.00  –  £    3,332.00 8 6
METROPOLITAN DIVISION LONDON 252000 17  £250,000.00 18 – –  £20,055.00 144 178  £52,600.00  –  £1,895.00  £362,200.00 28 6
METROPOLITAN DIVISION MIDDLESEX 175000 17  £  19,514.00 30 8 216  £55,078.00 5 1,027  –  £   5,068.00  £   381.00  £  86,380.00 10 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION KENT 115820 29  £  28,512.00 – 21 46  £16,833.00 4 79  £  6,284.00  £   3,837.00  £   149.00  £  56,985.00 10 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION Canterbury C.B. 2550 –  – – – –  – – 1  £     112.00  £     233.00  £     37.00  £      558.00 4 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION SURREY 101500 –  – 20 18 01-Jun  £13,950.00 3 69  £  5,200.00  £   1,500.00  £   750.00  £  52,340.00 10 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION Croydon C.B. 15000 2  £    1,555.00 3 – –  £  2,840.00 5 9  £  3,046.00  –  £   314.00  £    9,875.00 13 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION SUSSEX EAST 21200 4  £  10,367.00 2 14 23  £14,986.00 5 98  £  6,841.00  £   1,012.00  £2,165.00  £  37,495.00 35 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION Brighton C.B. 11000 2  £      810.00 2 – –  £  1,530.00 4 36  £  3,325.00  £     260.00  £   395.00  £    8,130.00 15 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION Eastbourne C.B. 3000 2  £      690.00 1 – 3  £  1,620.00 1 8  £     329.00  £       10.00  £     30.00  £    3,516.00 23 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION Hastings C.B. 3878 –  – – – –  – – 15  £     304.00  £       10.00  £     11.00  £      647.00 3 0
SOUTH EASTERN DIVISION SUSSEX WEST 26356 1  £      300.00 10 – 1  £  8,452.00 4 93  £  3,329.00  £       80.00  £1,109.00  £  14,058.00 10 6
SOUTHERN DIVISION BERKSHIRE 18070 –  – 4 1 –  £  4,104.00 – 23  £  1,840.00  £   1,835.00  £   610.00  £    9,375.00 10 0
SOUTHERN DIVISION Reading C.B. 7601 2  £    2,004.00 1 3 3  £  3,838.00 2 37  £  2,540.00  £     410.00  £   397.00  £  13,566.00 35 6
SOUTHERN DIVISION BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 33900 2  £    4,601.00 2.5 9 45  £12,810.00 – 64  £     937.00  £   1,385.00  £   142.00  £  23,042.00 13 6
SOUTHERN DIVISION DORSET 21000 –  – 1 – –  £  1,150.00 5 65  £  5,000.00  £   1,355.00  £   125.00  £    8,285.00 7 0
SOUTHERN DIVISION HAMPSHIRE 41517 12  £    2,494.00 7 3 23  £  7,411.00 – 54  £  4,660.00  £   1,555.00  £   662.00  £  16,832.00 8 0
SOUTHERN DIVISION Bournemouth C.B. 5900 9  £      507.00 1 – 12  £  2,723.00 3 20  £  1,926.00  £     258.00  £   138.00  £    6,068.00 20 6
SOUTHERN DIVISION Portsmouth C.B 22000 8  £    3,153.00 1 4 21  £  3,196.00 1 60  £  2,560.00  £     310.00  £   150.00  £  10,935.00 10 0
SOUTHERN DIVISION Southampton C.B. 16924 14  £    1,560.00 1 1 33  £  6,274.00 – 8  £  1,617.00  £     245.00  £   150.00  £  15,032.00 17 6
SOUTHERN DIVISION ISLE OF WIGHT 4500 14  £    4,016.00 2 2 16  £  4,697.00 – 7  £      85.00  £     115.00  £   141.00  £  10,323.00 46 0
SOUTHERN DIVISION OXFORDSHIRE 11000 –  – 5 – 9  £  5,830.00 – 5  £     800.00  £     420.00  £   360.00  £    9,230.00 16 6
SOUTHERN DIVISION Oxford C.B. 8500 –  – 2 – –  £  2,035.00 3 17  £  2,562.00  £     100.00  £     96.00  £    6,393.00 15 0
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION CORNWALL 20000 –  – – 1 5  £  4,684.00 2 81  £  1,265.00  £   1,806.00  £   806.00  £  10,511.00 10 6
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION ISLES OF SCILLY – –  – – – –  – – –  –  –  –  – – –
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION DEVON 10500 –  – – – –  £  5,250.00 1 33  £  1,500.00  £   1,500.00  £   660.00  £    9,210.00 17 6
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION Exeter C.B. 5520 –  – – – –  £  1,071.00 1 17  –  –  £     23.00  £    2,271.00 8 0
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION Plymouth C.B 14240 –  – – – –  £     801.00 – 48  –  –  £   218.00  £    5,269.00 7 6
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION GLOUCESTERSHIRE 38262 11  £    6,700.00 9 5 14  £12,509.00 5 147  £  9,289.00  £   2,825.00  £1,417.00  £  37,175.00 19 6
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION Bristol C.B. 34000 14  £    6,162.00 3 6 17  £  7,895.00 10 49  £14,729.00  £   2,190.00  £   466.00  £  39,442.00 23 0
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION Gloucester C.B. 5379 5  – 1 1 13  £  5,425.00 – 15  £      52.00  £       40.00  £     67.00  £    5,593.00 21 0
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION SOMERSET 36100 –  – 8 – –  £  9,185.00 5 97  £  4,103.00  £   2,003.00  £1,321.00  £  22,289.00 12 6
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION Bath C.B. 6170 –  – 1 – –  £     869.00 3 7  £  5,712.00  £     255.00  £   145.00  £    6,981.00 22 6
SOUTH WESTERN DIVISION WILTSHIRE 24000 9  £    1,431.00 11 7 48  £13,071.00 – 74  £     681.00  £     690.00  £   101.00  £  21,225.00 17 6
WALES ANGLESEY 2800 16  £      140.00 1 1 11  £  1,665.00 – 1  £     145.00  £     271.00  £     10.00  £    3,966.00 28 0
WALES BRECONSHIRE 4000 13  £    1,939.00 1 1 76  £  6,709.00 2 10  £     378.00  £     500.00  –  £    9,676.00 48 6
WALES CAERNARVONSHIRE 4000 38  £    2,970.00 2 2 38  £  5,138.00 3 58  £  1,717.00  £     585.00  £   100.00  £  10,611.00 53 0
WALES CARDIGANSHIRE 2000 1  £      175.00 0.5 – 2  £     736.00 2 6  £     635.00  £   1,225.00  £   162.00  £    3,283.00 33 0
WALES CARMARTHENSHIRE 13332 16  £    1,129.00 1 2 26  £  4,241.00 3 5  £  1,500.00  £   1,184.00  £   450.00  £  19,486.00 29 0
WALES DENBIGHSHIRE 14100 –  – 1 – –  £  1,150.00 4 82  £  7,630.00  £     400.00  £   100.00  £  11,780.00 16 6
WALES FLINTSHIRE 9200 18  £  14,584.00 – 1 25  – – 42  £  2,110.00  £     350.00  £   400.00  £  17,844.00 38 6
WALES GLAMORGAN 59155 108  £  12,058.00 2 – 551  £80,321.00 22 166  £21,139.00  £     425.00  £3,454.00  £122,529.00 41 6
WALES Cardiff C.B. 17739 5  £    2,302.00 – 1 5  £  1,150.00 3 72  £  4,900.00  –  £     71.00  £  17,593.00 19 6
WALES Merthyr Tydfil C.B. 3800 6  – – – 40  £  1,200.00 1 7  £     300.00  –  £     20.00  £    1,920.00 10 0
WALES Swansea C.B. 12500 22  – 0.5 – 21  £  6,625.00 2 14  £  1,716.00  –  £      7.00  £    9,357.00 15 0
WALES MERIONETHSHIRE 3000 –  – 2 – –  £  1,916.00 – 23  £  1,321.00  £     865.00  £     74.00  £    4,516.00 30 0
WALES MONMOUTHSHIRE – 49  £    7,435.00 1 1 268  £22,464.00 2 52  £  7,079.00  £     450.00  £   254.00  £  37,682.00 – –
WALES Newport C.B. 8000 3  £        59.00 1 – 16  £  1,566.00 1 13  £     739.00  –  £   353.00  £    2,849.00 7 0
WALES MONTGOMERYSHIRE 2960 –  – – – –  – 1 35  £     710.00  £     700.00  £     10.00  £    1,723.00 11 6
WALES PEMBROKESHIRE 5651 5  £    1,297.00 1 1 2  £  2,212.00 1 26  £     557.00  £     300.00  £   395.00  £    4,916.00 17 6
WALES RADNORSHIRE 1400 –  – – – –  – – 5  £     615.00  £     555.00  –  £    1,170.00 16 6

 

 

* Authorities differ in what they regard as fully maintained youth centres. The figures in column 3 reflect these differences.

** To the nearest half. Where an authority employ a youth officer/organiser for less than half time on youth work, the expenditure incurred is included in column 14

*** e.g. visit abroad, camps, orchestras, use of school buildings, etc.

 

APPENDIX 5 – Expenditure by local education authorities on recreation and social and physical training

 

Expenditure by local education authorities on recreation and social and physical training
1946-47

2,239,000
1947-48

2,937,000
1948-49

3,609,000
1949-50

3,902,000
1950-51

3,601,000
1951-52

3,931,000
1952-53

3,747,000
1953-54

3,890,000
1954-55

4,241,000
1955-56

4,246,000
1956-57

4,755,000
1957-58

5,155,000
Purchasing power of the £
The table below sets out the estimated changes in the internal purchasing power of the £ sterling for the years 1946-58, taking the index as 100 in
1946.
The calculation is based on changes in the consumer price index.
1946 100
1947 93
1948 87
1949 85
1950 82
1951 76
1952 71
1953 70
1954 69
1955 67

 

APPENDIX 6 – Estimated populations

ENGLAND AND WALES

A.    Estimated populations, by single years of age at 31st December in successive years, of young people between 14 and 20 years for the period 1957-73
(figures in thousands)
Age last birthday 31st December
1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973
14… 633 693 628 767 829 732 693 660 645 645 656 649 646 680 704 717 709
15… 604 633 693 628 767 829 732 692 660 645 644 656 649 646 680 704 717
16… 535 603 632 693 627 767 829 732 691 660 644 644 655 648 645 679 703
17… 546 535 603 623 693 627 767 829 731 691 660 644 644 655 648 645 678
18… 572 547 535 603 632 693 626 765 829 730 691 660 644 644 655 647 644
19… 578 574 547 535 603 632 692 626 765 827 730 691 658 644 644 655 647
20… 576 578 573 547 535 603 632 692 626 765 827 730 691 658 643 643 655
A.    Total estimated populations in age groups relevant to this Report
(figures in thousands)
31st December
1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973
Age group 14-20 inclusive 4,044 4,163 4,211 4,405 4,686 4,883 4,971 4,996 4,947 4,963 4,852 4,674 4,587 4,575 4,619 4,690 4,753
Age group 15-20 inclusive 3,411 3,470 3,583 3,638 3,857 4,151 4,278 4,336 4,302 4,318 4,196 4,025 3,941 3,895 3,915 3,973 4,044

 

Source: Registrar General

 

APPENDIX 7 – Estimated number on roll 15-18+ in maintained and assisted primary and secondary schools

ENGLAND AND WALES

A.    Estimated number on roll 15-18+ in maintained and assisted primary and secondary schools (other than special schools) for the period 1960-74
This estimate does not take into account the possibility of either the raising of the school leaving age or the introduction of county colleges.
Actual figures are given for 1958 and 1959
(figures in thousands)
Age January
1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
15… 167 185.1 209.5 198 251.8 282.9 259.3 254.2 251 253.7 261.7 275.1 280.6 287.7 311.6 331.8 347.2
16… 72.3 88.3 95.4 110.2 104.7 134.2 151.7 139.8 137.5 136.6 138.5 143.6 151.3 154.9 159.3 173.1 184.9
17… 35.9 37.4 45.7 51.1 59.5 56.9 73.5 83.6 77.3 76.6 76.4 77.8 81 85.7 88 90.8 98.9
18+ 15 15.7 16.7 20 22.2 25.8 24.5 31.5 35.8 33 32.6 32.5 33 34.3 36.2 37 38.1

 

B.    Actual figures of number on roll 15-18+ for January, 1958 and January, 1959 in non-maintained school (other than special needs schools)
(No forecasts are available for future years)
(figures in thousands)
Age last birthday January, 1958 January, 1959
Direct grant schools Independent schools recognised as efficient Other independent schools Direct grant schools Independent schools recognised as efficient Other independent schools
15… 13.4 26.3 9.4 14 28 10.5
16… 9.3 17.6 3.5 10.7 20.9 4.4
17… 6.3 10.9 1.1 6.3 10.6 1
18+ 2.8 3.8 0.4 2.7 3.5 0.4

Source: Ministry of Education

 

APPENDIX 8 – Details of the Government’s plans for ending national service

The Government’s plans for the call-up of men to H.M. Forces during the period from 1957 to December, 1960, when call-up is due to come to an end, are set out in the White paper “Call-up of Men to the Forces 1957-60” (Cmd.175), published in May, 1957. At that time it was estimated that between May,1957, and the end of 1960, some 570,000 men from the age groups covered by National Service Acts could, if necessary, be called up for national service. Although it was not possible to estimate with any precision the total number of national service men the Services would require up to the end of 1960, since this would depend on the nature Of the run-down of the Forces and the rate of recruitment of men as Regulars, it was clear that there would be a surplus of men who would not be required. This surplus would be resolved by registering fewer young men and relying, as far as practicable, on those who had enjoyed deferment of call-up to complete their studies or training. Accordingly it was announced that sufficient men would become available from the 1939 and earlier age classes to make it unnecessary to call up men born in 1940. Such men would remain legally liable but they need not expect to be called up. It is not proposed to extend the National Service Acts so as to bring men born in 1941, or later, within their scope.

It was unlikely that all men in the 1939 class would be required. Men born before 1st October, 1939, have been required to register for national service, but it has now been decided that men born between 1st October and 31st December, 1939, need not expect to be called up. As compared with 130,000 called up in 1956, the number of men called up in 1957 and 1958 and due to end their national service in 1959 and 1960 respectively was 101,000 and 81,000. The number to be called up for two years’ national service in 1959 and 1960 cannot be stated, but they will be progressively reduced because of the diminishing requirements of the Services for national service men.

Nevertheless, the announcements made in the White Paper and subsequently in the House of Commons make it clear that men born in the fourth quarter of 1939 and in 1940 and subsequent years need not expect to be called up under the National Service Acts and thus experience a two years’ interruption of their civilian activities.

APPENDIX 9 – Rates (per 100,000 of the related population) for males and females aged 8 – 20 years found guilty of indictable offences in the years 1938 and 1946 – 1958

(i)         Males

Year Age
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1938 220 451 703 931 1,111 1,315 1,141 1,145 1,110 867 740 766 665
1946 426 829 1,182 1,408 1,562 1,709 1,486 1,716 1,708 1,534 1,135 1,093 824
1947 435 808 1,096 1,296 1,541 1,729 1,463 1,516 1,562 1,404 1,030 1,096 822
1948 517 990 1,341 1,669 1,941 2,184 2,322 1,809 1,597 1,412 1,108 1,135 983
1949 487 949 1,284 1,560 1,803 1,986 2,160 15,443 1,417 1,162 1,002 934 810
1950 488 987 1,399 1,667 1,872 2,101 2,303 1,540 1,415 1,292 933 958 823
1951 479 962 1,410 1,734 2,102 2,422 2,699 1,831 1,582 1,509 1,123 1,063 965
1952 377 810 1,201 1,679 1,908 2,270 2,505 1,778 1,640 1,517 1,178 1,086 937
1953 368 694 1,012 1,314 1,654 1,926 2,115 1,474 1,392 1,294 1,033 923 839
1954 291 599 854 1,090 1,411 1,794 1,975 1,404 1,271 1,179 982 949 778
1955 228 575 888 1,098 1,383 1,713 2,068 1,451 1,324 1,239 1,043 1,040 841
1956 246 487 859 1,148 1,458 1,846 2,188 1,631 1,509 1,434 1,218 1,207 1,261
1957 290 586 830 1,275 1,620 2,029 2,438 1,844 1,835 1,780 1,617 1,451 1,339
1958 293 632 962 1,161 1,793 2,314 2,671 2,014 2,096 2,331 2,102 1,834 1,617

 

(i)         Females

Year Age
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1938 9 27 37 62 66 73 84 97 91 99 106 108 94
1946 26 51 76 107 122 146 154 161 170 178 189 174 152
1947 21 48 89 119 137 169 159 183 193 182 189 183 163
1948 31 66 104 144 187 210 227 208 200 201 214 177 172
1949 27 62 90 114 156 169 179 180 172 165 165 147 131
1950 27 60 90 117 148 173 206 188 184 171 158 149 137
1951 20 67 109 132 185 206 204 190 190 182 170 162 131
1952 21 53 101 138 186 223 222 206 201 206 174 179 130
1953 20 50 79 114 164 189 186 188 201 206 175 165 127
1954 12 47 58 88 133 177 197 179 188 185 179 165 129
1955 11 37 59 84 113 165 178 167 173 179 174 164 129
1956 12 26 63 96 121 151 169 188 175 180 166 154 119
1957 16 26 42 85 133 170 200 191 205 212 189 172 154
1958 13 35 67 95 161 217 235 218 225 265 253 198 174

 

APPENDIX 10 – Estimated numbers of full-time leaders required

There are at present about 700 full-time leaders in England and Wales (see Appendix 4). The estimated population in 1958 of young people aged 15-20 inclusive was just under 3½ million. Of these, about 200,000 were in the armed forces, leaving 3¼ million in civilian life. The combined effect of the “bulge”, the ending of national service and the lowering of the Youth Service age to 14 will be such as to add approximately 1½ million young people for whom the Service should provide, i.e., an increase of about 46 per cent. on the existing 3¼ million in civilian life (see Appendices 6 and 8).  In order simply to maintain the present ratio of leaders to potential members, the Youth Service will require 320 additional full-time leaders (as well as an increase in part-timers, paid and voluntary). This means that the total number of full-time leaders required for the larger youth population is in the region of 1,020.

But there are factors which suggest that this increase will not be enough, viz.:

(a)      a strengthened Youth Service ought to attract more than the present 30 per cent. of young people in its age range;

(b)      experimental group work with the unattached will be costly in man-power;

(c)      allowance has to be made for newly qualified leaders to work with experienced leaders during probation;

(d)      there is evidence that a number of local education authorities have advertised in vain posts for which they know full-time leaders are at present needed.

In order to provide for an increase from 30 per cent. to 45 per cent. in the proportion of young people attracted to the Service (which we consider reasonable) a further 510 full-time leaders would theoretically be required, making 1,530 in all.

On the other hand, there are factors which suggest that an increase on this scale might not be wholly necessary, viz.:

(a)      some leaders are at present wastefully employed;

(b)      if the powers of leadership of older adolescents are properly used, many groups may not need adult leaders of the traditional kind;

(c)      some clubs can absorb additional members without any increase in full-time staff;

(d)      young people are staying longer at school, and the trend may be of significant dimensions (see Appendix 7);

(e)      some fall in the number of 14—20s is expected in the late 1960s, though there are indications that this may be followed by a further rise (see Appendix 6);

(f)       a large number of 14-year olds are already in clubs and organisations, even though they are at that age outside the official range of the Youth Service.

The combined effect of all these factors is impossible to forecast, but we estimate, partly by guesswork, that it would be such as to reduce by 200—250 the number of full-time leaders required. This would reduce the estimated total to 1 ,300 or thereabouts.

APPENDIX 11 – A suggested syllabus for a one-year full-time emergency training course

Leadership Studies

  • The aims and organisation of the Youth Service and its place within the larger pattern of society.
  • The development of patterns of group work within provided clubs, voluntary organisations, ephemeral groups, religious groups, self-initiating and self-programming youth groups. Social relations including those within the group, with other youth groups in a neighbourhood and their relation to natural gangs. Discussion group techniques. Desirable and undesirable adult help and patronage.
  • Club and group administration and accounting. Decentralisation. Committees as training and committees as nuisances. The tug-of-war between the office and the field. Importance of voluntary help in administration.
  • Critical written studies of the work and aims of youth groups and organisations.

Practical Work

  • Regular experience under supervision in local group leadership while under training.
  • Group visits to, and seminars on, youth groups and camps, juvenile courts, remand homes, approved schools, industrial establishments, hostels, apprentice training schemes: some discreet study of youth at natural gathering centres such as dance halls or espresso bars.
  • Camping or adventurous enterprises with or without young people.

Personal Skills

  • It is desirable that every student should acquire or improve a personal skill or hobby—for example in music, drama, the arts, handicrafts, athletics, climbing, birdwatching—and that he should be encouraged to exercise this skill if possible in his practical work.
  • Alternatively each student should undertake as special personal task during his training and write a brief essay on it. Close study of a limited field during training helps to get the student away from overmuch abstraction and generalisation and it also teaches him the value of a discipline of personal study.

Background Studies

A selection might be made from the following:

  • Psychology of adolescence.
  • Physical welfare of the adolescent.
  • Economic and social structure of modern Britain.
  • English social history of the 19th and 20th century, with special emphasis upon the family and neighbourhood changes.
  • The changing cultural pattern of society (a course which would include contemporary social issues and their impact on youth and vice-versa; contemporary means of communication—press, film, TV, radio, comics, books—and utilisation of libraries by adolescents; work and home, sex, religious values, etc. It should provide the opportunity, especially if the seminar method is used, to get away from stereotyped psychological studies).
  • Contemporary literature: not necessarily on youth, but certainly including important contemporary work from
  • English language and literature in a more general way. (All universities and training colleges are faced with the problem of the illiteracy of the educated — surely itself a factor in the growing inarticulateness of the young.)
  • Some study of the religious, political and philosophical ideas of Western civilisation as a background to modern society.
  • Critical study of the contributions of the social sciences to the study and welfare of the young. The word critical is emphasised.
  • Current affairs talks and discussions.

 

(32696) Wt. 1032—3142 K160 2/60 D.L.

[1] The survey was carried out by the Central Office of Information for the Central Advisory Council. Sec “15 to 18” A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England).

 

[2] “Training for Skill—Recruitment and Training of Young Workers in Industry” (Report of a Sub-Committee of the National Joint Advisory Council, 1958).

[3] Report of the Committee on Recruitment, Training and Conditions of Service of Youth Leaders and Community Centre Wardens, 1949.

[4] Second Report of the National Advisory Council on the Training and Supply of Teachers, entitled “The Recruitment and Training of Youth Leaders and Community Centre Wardens” 1951.

[5] At University College, Swansea, Westhill Training College, Birmingham and a course run by the National Association of Boys’ Clubs at Liverpool University Settlement.

[6] See Appendices 2 and 3, and Chapter 7.

[7] Appendix 3. We have used the year 1957—58 throughout the Report, because later figures were not available for all organisations.

[8] This amount included about £1½ million in percentage grant that year towards the expenditure by local education authorities on the Youth Service mentioned in paragraph 25.

[9] See Appendix 4.

[10] In the same year, expenditure on all recreation and social and physical training represented 0.95 per cent. of total net expenditure by authorities on education. In 1949—50 the proportion was 1.65 per cent.

[11] In the absence of a special price index relating to Youth Service expenditure, we have used the consumer price index as a basis for calculating the fall in the value of the pound (see Appendix 5).

[12] “A Guide to the Educational System of England and Wales, 1945.”

[13] “Partnership in the Youth Service, 1945”, published by the National Council of Social Service.

[14] Seventh Report from the Select Committee on Estimates, “The Youth Employment Service and Youth Service Grants”.

[15] Third Special Report from the Select committee on Estimates, “Observations of the Minister of Education and the Secretary of State for Scotland on the Seventh Report of the Select Committee on Estimates in Session 1956-57…”

[16] See Appendix 6.

[17] Growth is more than a combination of height and weight, for each body system has its own growth curve and pattern. For example, the nervous system is almost fully grown before puberty, the lymphatic system begins to regress before this time, whereas the reproductive system matures and enlarges. In addition to skeletal growth at adolescence there is also an increase in muscle growth and power.

[18] Comparable changes are found in Scandinavia and the U.S.A. In the U.S.A., for example, the average age at which puberty occurs has been getting steadily earlier, at the rate of between 1/3 and a ½ year for each decade during this century. (J. M. Tanner, ” Growth at Adolescence Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1955.)

[19] Christian Economic and social Research Foundation, 1958.

[20] An interesting point also revealed by these tables concerns the rate or crime among males.  Before the raising of the school leaving age to 15, the rate Was greatest the 13 olds. But the position was changed immediately the leaving age was raised to 15 in 1947. Ever since, the rate of crime has been greatest among the 14 year olds, which suggests that the last year at school is one of greater stress than we imagined, and this has bearing upon the recommendations concerning the age range of the Youth Service (paragraphs 149—153).

[21] Delinquent Generations: a paper based on a Communication to the British Association at their meeting in Glasgow, 1958.

[22] See Appendix 7.

[23] White Paper “Secondary Education for All: A New Drive” (Cmd. 604)

[24] Circular 10/59: “The Remodelling of Old Schools”.

[25] “Technical Education”, published 29th February, 1956 (Cmd. 9703).

[26] Central Office of Information survey.

[27] Director of Research for the London Press Exchange, Managing Director of Research Services Limited. Mr. Abrams kindly made available to the Committee figures based on his recent research.

[28] Former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education.

[29] Section 41.

Subject as hereinafter provided, it shall be the duty of every local education authority to secure the provision for their area of adequate facilities for further education, that is to say:—

(a) full-time and part-time education for persons over compulsory school age; and

(b) leisure-time occupation, in such organised cultural training and recreative activities as are suited to their requirements, for any persons over compulsory school age who are able and willing to profit by the facilities provided for that purpose:

Provided that the provisions of this section shall not empower or require local education authorities to secure the provision of facilities for further education otherwise than in accordance with schemes of further education or at county colleges.

Section 53 (as amended by the Education Act, 1948).

(1) It shall be the duty of every local education authority to secure that the facilities for primary secondary and further education provided for their area include adequate facilities for recreation and social and physical training, and for that purpose a local education authority, with the approval of the Minister, may establish maintain and manage, or assist the establishment, maintenance, and management of camps, holiday classes, playing fields, play centres, and other places (including playgrounds, gymnasiums, and swimming baths not appropriated to any school or college), at which facilities for recreation and for such training as aforesaid are available for persons receiving primary secondary or further education, and may organise games, expeditions and Other activities for such persons, and may defray or contribute towards the expenses thereof.

(2) A local education authority in making arrangements for the provision of facilities or the organisation of activities under the powers conferred on them by the last foregoing subsection shall, in particular, have regard to the expediency of co-operating with any voluntary societies or bodies whose objects include the provision of facilities or the organisation of activities of a similar character.

[30] General grants, see chapter 7

[31] We have received evidence which points to a need for university research in this country into the problems of adolescence.

[32] Report of the Committee appointed by the Minister of Education on ” The Structure of the Public Library Service in England and Wales, 1959 (Cmd. 660).

[33] See paragraph 197.

[34] See Appendix 10.

[35] Colleges for Men:

Culham, Abingdon, Berkshire; Newland Park, Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire.

Colleges for Women:

Chelsea College of Physical Education, Eastbourne; Dartford College of physical Education, Kent; Kenton Lodge, Newcastle; Mount Pleasant, Liverpool.

Colleges for Men and Women:

Edge Hill, Ormskirk, Lancashire; Kesteven, Stoke Rochford, Linconshire; City of Portsmouth; Swansea.

[36] Report of the Working Party on Social Workers in the Local Authority Health and Welfare Services. H.M.S.O.

[37] See paragraphs 250, 254, 255, 257, 262, 264 and 265.

[38] The aggregate for England and Wales of the estimated product of a penny general rate 1957-58, was £2,378,862 which approximates to the amount spent in that year by local education authorities on the Youth Service.

[39] See Appendix 2 for the list of the national voluntary youth organisations to whom these grants were offered.  It should be noted that the amounts shown above are actual payments during each financial year whereas appendix 2 shows offers of grants.

[40] This figure is considerably lower than those for previous years because with effect from this year, the whole of the grant payable to the Central Council of Physical Recreation is being included among the grants made by the Ministry under the Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937.  Formerly part of the Council’s grant was shown as a Youth Service grant.

Youth & Policy is run voluntarily on a non-profit basis. If you would like to support our work, you can donate any amount using the button below.

Last Updated: 31 July 2020

Footnotes:

Tech wizzardy required for website by Aston Wood 

References:

Davies, B. (1999). From Voluntaryism to Welfare State. A history of the Youth Service in England. Volume 1: 1939-1979. Leicester: Youth Work PressJeffs, A. J. (1979). Young People and the Youth Service. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Smith, M. K. and Doyle M. E. (2002). The Albemarle Report and the development of youth work in England and Wales. Infed: The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education. Available [online] https://infed.org/mobi/the-albemarle-report-and-the-development-of-youth-work-in-england-and-wales/ [Access date: 21st May 2020]