Oasis Charitable Trust is to pilot a ‘community hub’ based on the Labour government’s flapship youth policy the Young Futures programme.

This programme aims to set up a network of hubs nationwide offering young people support from youth workers, mental health professionals and careers advisers.

Community support charity Oasis is to pilot the first hub modelled on the programme at a disused girls’ school in South London.

This is the second time the charity has been the first to launch a flagship government youth policy, after the previous Conservative government chose the charity to launch the first secure school, Oasis Restore. This is opening in Kent and focuses on offering education and health support to young offenders.

The Young Futures pilot will see the former St Martin-in-the-Fields high school for girls in Tulse Hill, south London, transformed from September into the Oasis St Martin’s Village, to offer support to pupils who are persistently absent from mainstream education.

It will offer mentoring and one to one therapeutic care from youth workers and mental health support teams and also focus on diverting young people away from crime.

"Following conversations with the Labour team the ‘Oasis St Martin’s Village’ in Tulse Hill, South London is designed to transform the life chances of children and young people who are struggling with or absent from mainstream education, by offering them and their families support and opportunity," said the charity.

Oasis St Martin’s Village aims to be the first in a small number of pilot projects the charity plans to open to test Labour’s Young Futures programme style hubs.

“The school attendance crisis is a systemic problem, it’s not something that can be seen in isolation and solved with a pull of a policy lever here or there,” said Oasis founder Steve Chalke.

“The whole ecosystem of a child’s life matters. At Oasis St Martin’s we will therefore work in partnership with families and local community and grassroots groups, as well as the statutory services.

“We believe that the power of the voluntary sector and local people will add huge value.

“For too long we have repeated the mantra that it takes a village to raise a child, and then left the village out.

“We’ve side-lined our greatest national asset: local people – mums, dads, families, and other community members. It’s time for a radical reset – and it’s one that Oasis is committed to helping Labour deliver”.

He added: “We are getting started ahead of the policy detail and funding being worked on and finalised, because that is the best way to inform that process.”

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