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(01) Conference is wholly opposed to the unfair and unnecessary cuts to our public services and welfare state, and condemns the actions of this Government, which seems obsessed with pursuing polices that are pushing people and their communities into extreme poverty. The damage and destruction being wreaked on our society and economy by the current Government’s policies, is having a profound impact on the lives of young people in this country which will have a massive impact on the future. (02) society that is ‘positive for youth’ invests in the future of young people, including A investment in both formal and informal education and services that enable young people to access education (secondary, further and higher) and vocational learning. Yet, in less than a year after taking office, the Con-Dem Government abolished the Education Maintenance Allowance and tuition fees tripled, closed the Young Peoples Learning Agency and are closing down the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS). This places unwelcome barriers in the way of young people wanting to continue their education and leading to a drop in university applications of 10% in England. The Future Jobs Fund was also abolished, and youth unemployment has now climbed to over 1 million and remains at unacceptable levels. The reforms to raise the Compulsory Participation Age will simply disguise the scale of the cuts and massage the Youth Unemployment statistics downward. (03) Youth work and youth services are investments in our future. They aim to achieve the personal and social development of young people, creating active participants in society, leading to better health and wellbeing, improved formal educational outcomes, communication skills, employability, emotional Intelligence and healthier relationships. The positive outcomes of youth work ultimately reduce the demands placed on other public services, particularly crisis intervention services, and help create a better society for us all. But, as it is still not a statutory provision, the scale of the imposed spending cuts have led to some councils abandoning their commitment to youth work and youth services altogether and others reducing it so drastically, to render it ineffective. (04) survey conducted by Children and Young People Now in 2011 found that at least A 3,624 redundancies were being predicted by the 21 directors of children’s services who gave details on how the cuts will affect jobs in their departments. (05) Since then youth workers in many councils have continued to struggle to provide good quality youth services, but the financial settlement 2013/14 and 2014/15 contained further cuts for local government, with the 10 most deprived authorities in this country face cuts in spending power eight times greater than the 10 least deprived authorities. This will hit all public services and communities hard, and make it likely that in deprived \?X\??\?H[?]?\??X?\?\?H[???YYY^B??[?]?\??X?\?[?[?[??[?B???\??][?L??????H?\??][???L??MH?B??