An Isle of Wight ‘postcode lottery’ has led to calls for a more accessible service for every child and young person.
Councillor Michael Lilley is asking the Isle of Wight Council to work with various organisations to ensure every young Islander can use an out-of-school youth service. He cited Network Ryde, which provides accessible free youth services to the town’s young people and wants the model replicated elsewhere.
Network Ryde, which is funded by council tax payers, is being lauded as an example of good practice.
The Ryde Elmfield and Appley representative called cuts in 2018, made by a previous administration, a disastrous decision which led to the emergence of a ‘postcode lottery’ of services from smaller Councils – with the voluntary sector trying to fill the gap.
Now, Cllr Lilley’s motion will be heard at the Council’s meeting later (Wednesday) and he wants a consistent quality of support across the Island.
Cllr Lilley said a single mother from Ryde had told him she would not be able to afford a service for her child with special education needs, she would not be able to work and her children would have little or no opportunities, without Network Ryde. He said it was unacceptable some areas on the Island have no support.
He said:
“We have to face up to this reality. We have no universities and about 40% of our 18-year-olds leave to go to the mainland for higher education and most only come back to visit. We have a responsibility to make sure our under 19s have future – or we have a grim future without them.”
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Ew. No more young people. They are anti social!
Oh the irony…
How dreadfully sad and ironic. Go back in your records to the time we had a thriving, well managed, professionally run youth service. Full time qualified youth workers, a wonderful team of paid part-time staff who received in-service training, plus a band of loyal volunteers. Buildings across the Island housed the full time youth clubs, which were all well attended. We also had a number of part-time youth clubs which also offered an amazing service to young people in their area. There were trained youth workers to work on the streets with young people who chose to gather in bus stations or under piers rather than come into clubs. What happened? THE IW COUNCIL CLOSED THE SERVICE DOWN!!!
Newport youth club was amazing back in the day, wonderful volunteers and somewhere for kids to actually go rather be on the streets causing trouble. I went all over the country playing pool thanks to that youth club, I imagine many youngster’s have nothing even close to the opportunities I had barely 20 years ago. The youth are the future so we need to look after them and guide them in the right directions.