Youth club closures affected GCSE results, warns IfS report
Youth club closures in the 2010s resulted in lower GCSE results and increased offending among young people, a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests. The report estimated that for every £1 saved from closing youth clubs, “there are societal costs of nearly £3”. The austerity programme enacted by the coalition government in 2010 resulted in huge cuts to council budgets, which resulted in swathes of youth club closures. Research earlier this year by Unison found 1,243 council-run youth centres closed between 2010 and 2023. The new Labour government has pledged to spend £95 million on a new network of “youth future” hubs, in which schools are expected to play a pivotal role. Closures affected GCSE grades The IfS compared exam results and offending rates among teenagers living in areas where all youth clubs within a 40-minute walk closed with those teenagers whose nearest youth club stayed open. It found teenagers whose nearest youth club closed did worse in school. The impact was “roughly equivalent to a decline of half a grade in one …