CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Almost every problem addressed elsewhere in this manifesto has a chapter that begins here. Knife crime, violence against women, addiction, unemployment and the loss of talent from this city all trace back to what happens to a young Londoner between the ages of eleven and twenty-one.
London has closed youth centres for over a decade. The consequence was predictable and was predicted. Preventing crime is cheaper than policing it, and giving a young person somewhere to go and something to aim at is the most sensible investment there is. This chapter reverses the closures.
8.1 Somewhere to go
- A youth centre within reach of every young Londoner, with one hundred centres reopened or rebuilt across the term.First centres open within the first hundred days. Fifty open by end of Year Two. One hundred operating by end of Year Three. Indicative cost: forty-five million pounds annually.
- Guaranteed activity for every young person outside school hours, in sport, music, coding, trades and the arts.Delivered through the centres above and through partnership with London’s cultural and sporting institutions. Indicative cost: twenty million pounds annually.
- Protected play space written into the London Plan, so that no new development is approved without it.Policy instrument, no direct cost.
8.2 Somewhere to go next
- Every young person leaving the care system in London offered housing, an apprenticeship or a place in further education.Delivered with boroughs, funded through the GLA and devolved adult education budget. Indicative cost: twelve million pounds annually.
- Free travel for under-eighteens protected permanently.Indicative cost: provisionally one hundred and thirty million pounds annually.
8.3 Support
- Mental health support available in every London secondary school.Schools are not a mayoral function. Delivered through partnership with boroughs, health commissioners and school trusts, funded from the GLA. Indicative cost: eighteen million pounds annually.
- Childcare costs brought down for London families, with mayoral land released for nursery provision.Land release is direct. The London weighting case is pressed with government. Indicative cost: fifteen million pounds annually.
- Obligatory school enrolment reinforced through London-wide attendance programmes.Indicative cost: eight million pounds annually.
- An impartial education for every child, free from political intervention.The national curriculum is set by the Department for Education. This standard applies directly to every mayoral education programme and is argued for nationally.