Prospects for trouble were high. However, qualified youth and community and children’s workers got to work over the summer. They helped co-ordinate support agencies, worked face-to-face with the children and parents, spotted brewing tension and organised community activities. Now new and established residents are building shared lives as yet free from the animosities and jealousies that have blighted other parts of the country.

Yet if I look at the support for this work I find it vulnerable and fragile. For any multi-disciplinary youth and community work team it is still a question of mulitiple grant applications to a dizzying variety of funding streams. Such streams are all short-term. Most are one year, some less. We expect the services at the heart of the neighbourhood renewal and social exclusion agendas to live hand-to-mouth.

But two other common features are evident in the fragmented funding regimes for essential programmes. There are insufficient conditions attached to the new money and there is a lack of accountability on the part of many of the organisations that receive it. Many community organisations or groups seeking to improve the lot of children and young people have tremendous good-will and great intentions, but many lack the capacity to employ professional staff and deliver effective programmes. Some lack vital protective policies and operate unaware of essential legal requirements. The threadbare infrastructure of such projects has led to a rising caseload for the union and some scepticism about the progressive policy drives behind the funding. The absence of basic ethical frameworks and professional guidelines in many of the groups working in the front line of childcare and youth intervention is frightening.

Governments have said that skilled youth and community and play workers are critical to success. Yet they and others fund thousands of organisations that do not even require a qualification. Our members work in the most divided and disadvantaged areas of the UK on the streets and in the youth and community centres with the residents. They are trained to empower communities and young people to become active citizens free from prejudice and fear. They advise befriend and counsel those who need support and lack opportunities. They help build a community’s capacity to respond collectively. Above all, they combat the hatred that grows up in divided communities whether in Belfast, Burnley, or Bradford.

There have been many excellent government initiatives to rebuild this part of the social economy. Billions of pounds have been allocated. While we often criticise governments for being too slow, in this area, we have to counsel less haste. Many of our tinderbox communities rely on incoherent, quick-fix funny money. The short-termism we see in industry is mirrored in community regeneration. Both need long-term strategic support. To sustain a healthy nation you need consistent investment in the NHS with its skilled staff. To rebuild civil society and vibrant communities you need sustained national investment in youth, community and play services. You can’t just will people into raising self-esteem and better understanding of each other. This involves professional application of informal education skills. This sector needs urgent legislation to put it on a par with schools and universities with mandatory funding and a better system for monitoring all of the funding streams that pour into it.

Doug Nicholls, general secretary, Community and Youth Workers’ Union