Despite its location in the heart of Tower Hamlets, Haileybury youth centre in Stepney Green was abandoned for 25 years. A decade ago, the council invested in regenerating the building, but with a limited programme of activities and enduring stigma around youth clubs, local teens weren’t really interested.
Now, Tower Hamlets council hopes to persuade them that youth services have something to offer by reversing their decade-long decline and pumping £13.7m into an ambitious programme of social and educational events – co-designed by young people – including careers workshops, performance arts, cooking classes, arts and crafts, sports and days out.
The borough is also funding a youth centre in every ward, which the council said makes it the largest youth services package in the country.
The borough’s mayor, Lutfur Rahman, thinks that despite a challenging financial climate, investing in youth services is crucial – especially in Tower Hamlets. The borough’s population has swollen by 22% since 2011; its average age is 30, the youngest in the country; it has a child poverty rate of 56%, the highest in London; and 40,000 to 50,000 people there are thought to live in overcrowded homes.
“The kids don’t have a proper space of their own,” he said. “The link between schools, education, youth services and crime is so important. Give them good after-school provision, linked with schools, and they are bound to do well.”
The move is intended to correct a decade of swingeing cuts to youth services. A 2022 YMCA report found that funding cuts in England had reached £1.1bn, representing a real-terms fall of 74%, since 2010-11.
In an effort to modernise, the borough’s new services were co-designed by 400 of its young people. Zaynah Alom, 17, the chair of Tower Hamlets’ youth council, hosted a series of events to gather their opinions, and was surprised by the enthusiastic turnout. She wants to challenge a common perception among young people and their parents: “Why would I go there? It’s boring. There’s nothing to do.”
Alom has personally benefited from youth theatre, access to social workers and a young carers’ network, and wants other young people to understand that the new centres have free activities, work experience opportunities and new facilities and technology, from dance studios to music production tools.
She said the misperception resulted in “street problems, knife crime, use of drugs, getting involved with the wrong people, all because they’re told not to come to youth centres”. This was especially the case for boys, she added, who could be approached by gang members and be asked to hold something or perform a task, then told: “Now you’re involved.”
It was Rahman’s childhood experiences of youth services which persuaded him of their ability to transform lives. The mayor grew up in an overcrowded home and attended a youth club where he played sports, did his homework and encountered youth workers who mentored and supported him. “It was a shoulder I could lean on in my difficult times, and youth workers encouraged me to study hard and go to university. I wouldn’t be here [without them],” he said.
The new events programme emphasises the post-16 transition into education, training and employment, alongside preventing young people from offending and entering the criminal justice system.
The borough is hoping to position itself as a leader in child and youth services. The investment forms part of a wider package of public health initiatives, which includes £5.7m for universal free school meals for primary and secondary school pupils, £1.1m to re-introduce education maintenance allowances and university bursaries, and £730,000 for children with special educational and additional needs.
However, Rahman’s political opponents have expressed concerns about the sustainability of such a large funding boost. This is in part because, before returning to lead the council last year, Rahman was removed by an election court for “corrupt and illegal practices”. In February, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy tweeted that it has “concerns Tower Hamlets is going wrong again and will need intervention”.
Rahman is adamant that the cost of living crisis warrants drawing down on the council’s reserves, and that further efficiency savings can be generated by reducing the council’s reliance on costly consultants. He says that in the long run, investing in frontline youth services will reduce pressure on other services by improving outcomes for the borough’s young population.
Ideally, he wants to see more central government support for youth services, especially given the cost of living crisis.
But in the meantime, he says it is only through spending that places such as Haileybury, and the young people who use them, will thrive.
“It’s crying to be used to its full potential. Once the youth services are up and running, you’ll see kids lining up outside to come to a facility like this,” he said.
