4Children is calling for a programme of Sure Plus Centres which would bring together traditional youth services, health, out of school activities, advice services and parental support.  With a Sure Plus Centre in every community, teenagers would be able to take part in activities, chill-out and socialise with friends with skilled adults on hand. Parents too would benefit as centres would open for teenagers at times parents are working. Centres would also offer advice and specialist programmes for those parents who need more help with their teenagers.
 
Oona King is Chair of 4Children’s one year Make Space Youth Review, supported by the Nestle Trust, which has been set up to examine the needs of young people in this country. She said: “Young people have been the subject of much recent debate. We have reached a crucial point in what we are really offering young people in this country. Some teenagers are increasingly living in a world without boundaries, wandering the streets bored with nowhere to go. Members of this ‘Lord of the Flies’ generation are themselves victims of peer pressure of anti social behaviour and isolation from their community.  It is our responsibility to offer them more.”
 
Anne Longfield, Chief Executive of 4Children said “Not having enough to do is the most common complaint amongst young people. Research shows that structured activity for young people actively improves all their lives, not just those likely to get into trouble. Importantly, though, it can prevent teenagers being tempted into anti-social and risky behaviour through providing positive activities and opportunities on a scale that most communities currently lack. 
 
“Government needs to provide a new offer to young people which brings together places to go and things to do with help and wider support for parents. Drawing on the positive experience of Sure Start we are calling for new Sure Plus Centres to be developed in every area offering joined up support in every community. Current investment in young people will need to treble but the savings in crime and health alone would be significant.”

The call to Government is backed by key findings recently submitted to Government by 4Children and the National Youth Agency: 
 
- On average £98 per year is spent on statutory youth services, from youth centres to street based and project-led activities, for each 13-19 year old in England. An increase to £350 would open up access and let all teenagers know what’s on offer at any point in time, in places where it is needed. Two million would be expected to then use those services. That’s half the population of 13-19 year olds, effectively doubling the current level of provision, while also directing services to those most vulnerable.
 
- The youth offer would cost £1.5bn with further investment needed to take account of wider community involvement for volunteering, faith and community-based groups or specialist services.  In comparison, the government allocated £2.9bn to local authorities to support the delivery of early years provision in 2005/06, with an additional £1.4bn in 2006/07 to reduce inequalities in younger children, through funding for Sure Start childcare, children’s centres and extended schools.
 
- One million young people say they are left on the streets after school in England with nowhere to go. Six out of ten young people think there is not enough to do in their area and 70 per cent agree this may lead young people into crime. Evidence from the USA shows that investing in youth programmes benefits the public and participating young people by $3 tax dollars for every $1 spent without counting the advantages of reduced crime.
 
- Huge savings can be made from the costs swallowed up in the price-tag of crime and anti-social behaviour. The cost for a teenager to spend a year in a Young Offenders Institution can cost up to 45,000 – double the cost of sending them to Eton! The key is in taking young people off the road to crime and anti-social behaviour before they veer onto it. Further down the line the costs of failing to this begin to mount. It is in this sense that investment in positive activities and support for all our young people is an investment that we have to make.”

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