Roger has signed a petition calling for the cuts to the national youth service to be reversed.
He said: “Youth services across the UK have been disproportionately cut as a result of the austerity measures introduced by the current coalition government. By 2015, youth service provision may have disappeared entirely in many parts of the country, and could certainly be the first public service to disappear.”
Roger believes that a well funded youth service is massively cost effective and beneficial, particularly when its cost is compared to the funding required to keep a young person in the criminal justice system, which amounts to more than £200,000 by the age of 16. It costs £35,000 per year to keep one young person in a young offender institution and £9,000 for the average resettlement package per young person after custody.

This article appeared in the August edition of Roger's newsletter 'Postcard from Parliament'