The Condition of Young People

Young people’s situation in the UK has long been shaped by deeply embedded structural factors defined, for example, by class, gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. Often oversimply labelled ‘disadvantages’ by state policy-makers, these inequalities have been both further exposed and exacerbated by the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. As a result, growing numbers of young people are struggling to attend school, find and keep a job, make ends meet and live independently or avoid homelessness. With their mental health already under pressure pre-Covid, the relevant support services in the period covered by the book have often been unable to cope with the huge extra demands made on them by young people.