Underpinning Ideology

Throughout the period covered by this book, neo-liberal ideas committed to individualistic, competitive, privatising and anti-state priorities continued to influence government policies, including ones focused on youth services. Though the Covid-19 pandemic initially prompted some critical, largely pragmatic, scrutiny of these ideas, their constraints on these services remained, including on open youth work provision in England. One significant consequence was to raise the profile and extend the role of voluntary youth organisations, both via state commissioning procedures and as direct providers of open youth work facilities previously funded and run by the state.