Teenagers have endured enough – national service is too much to ask

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced plans to reintroduce national service if the Conservative Party retains power in the general election. Under the plan proposed by Sunak, 18-year-olds would spend either a year in the army or one weekend in four as volunteers.

The project aims to “foster a culture of service”, which Sunak said would make society “more cohesive”. But it is a way of demanding even more from young people who will have already suffered disruption to their education and social development because of the pandemic, some of whom have seen increased family difficulties due to the cost of living crisis and lack of support. due to widespread cuts to youth services.

Sunak's plan presents young people as the problem. Asking them to develop a philosophy of service suggests that this is lacking among young people. Sunak said national service would keep young people out of trouble.

This vision of youth is far from new. Criminologist Stanley Cohen used the term “moral panic” to describe the widespread and exaggerated concern over unrest between mods and rockers in 1964. This unrest occurred less than a year after the end of national service. The press lamented the end of the project at the time, and since its end there have been repeated calls for its reintroduction, particularly when moral panic concerns the behavior of young men.

Whether it is drugs, anti-social behavior, knife crime, teenage pregnancy, gender identity, exploitation and radicalization, young people are often labeled as thugs, users or victims.

Reductions in youth aid

But today's teenagers have been disappointed. Over the past 14 years, youth services have been massively cut by current Conservative and previous Coalition governments. Safe places to meet, spend leisure time and have fun, supervised and supported by trained youth workers committed to offering advice and support, have been the target of austerity and local authority cuts.

Between 2010 and 2019, the UK youth service budget was cut by £400 million. More than 760 centers have closed and 4,500 youth work jobs have been lost.

A government study, published in 2024, found that if young people could attend a youth club, they would be likely to lead healthier lives, less likely to play truant and more likely to pursue higher education. But many young people are now not receiving the benefits of these services.

The impact of these cuts has affected all young people, but it is the most vulnerable who have been hit hardest. Those living in areas of social and economic deprivation are at far greater risk and experience the most deeply entrenched inequalities and lack of opportunity.

National service would have the most striking effect on the most disadvantaged young people – those least likely to be able to give up weekends when they have a job or caring responsibilities, or to spend a year out of the job market. work in the army. No concrete plans for how compulsory national service would be imposed have been presented, but if it involves fines, these would further penalize poorer families.

A raw deal

Young people were denied access to safe places and youth workers who could support them. They were victims of a global pandemic that deprived them of the usual rites of passage.

They face years of living with their parents due to unstable employment, zero hours contracts, student loans, high rents and inaccessible deposits.

In the face of all this, they are – unsurprisingly – experiencing unprecedented levels of mental health problems. In 2023, a record number of young people were referred to child and adolescent mental health services.

What young people need is some level of understanding, some sympathy for what they have experienced over the last decade and a robust youth service re-established – without being forced to also give up their weekends or spend a year of their life in the army.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Jo Aubrey is a member of the Labor Party and the Fawcett Society,