A working paper published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (Villa, 2024) examines the impact of the mass closures of youth club facilities in London.
In 2009, around 40% of Londoners aged 11 to 16 attended a youth club at least once a week. However, around 30% of youth clubs in the capital were forced to close between 2010 and 2019 as a result of cuts to local authority funding.
The research compares offending rates and exam results among teenagers who live in an area where all local youth clubs closed with those among teenagers whose nearest youth club stayed open.
It finds that London teenagers whose nearest youth clubs closed went on to do worse in school. Specifically, they performed worse by the equivalent of half a grade in one subject. The impact was more severe for students living in poverty, whose performance was the equivalent of more than a grade worse in one subject.
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