No community is immune to anti-social behaviour. In some communities, however, the social fabric has torn to such an extent that anti-social behaviour is seen as the norm, rather than the exception. In these areas, small groups of young people are consistently engaged in behaviour that is of real danger to themselves and others. Children as young as eight, demonstrate a hard edge of maturity beyond their years and act in the full knowledge that the law cannot prosecute them and that their parents are unwilling or unable to control them.

The 2012 referendum campaign on the rights of the child focused considerable attention on the powers of the State.  While it is not the State’s role to rear a child, it does have a role in its protection. Our understanding of the concept of ‘protection’, however, is often limited. A child who is able to leave school at fourteen with only functional literacy, if even that, is not being protected. Similarly, the 1,000 Irish primary school children who never make it to secondary school each year are not being protected. While formal education is not the panacea to the social marginalisation that leads to anti-social behaviour, it is one of the State’s most encompassing influences on the child. School gives the young person somewhere to be. A positive, warm environment where they are encouraged to develop. The great advantage of school for the community is that it fulfils young people, both mentally and physically. A full day of school, followed by sport, followed by some homework is exhausting for even the most energetic child. There simply isn’t the time or the desire to be out roaming the streets.

One of the fundamental challenges facing youth work in Ireland today is the lack of accreditation. It is one of the few, if not only, professions in the country where practitioners can literally certify their own title. There is no national body overseeing the vocation, nor is any standardised diploma or degree expected of job applicants.

Over 10% of Irish school children will never sit their Leaving Certificate. Over one thousand will not even make it into secondary school. In fact, the only thing more disheartening about these figures has been the government’s response to drop out rates and subsequent educational challenges. The tragedy that a quarter of all Irish adults scored in the lowest possible level of literacy in The International Adult Literacy Survey (2006) is only dwarfed by The Prison Adult Literacy Survey: Results and Implications (2003) which showed that this figure is double amongst our prison population.