Children and young people in the UK are facing a bleaker future under the coalition government than they did under Labour, according tochildren's charity Unicef.

In what amounts to a direct challenge to the government's austerity agenda and widespread tightening of access to benefits, Unicef ranks the UK 16th out of 29 developed countries for overall wellbeing – and warns that teenagers' prospects trail behind their counterparts in many European countries, including Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

Continuing high rates of teenage pregnancy, relatively low levels of young people in education, employment or training and problems of alcohol abuse in young teens push the UK down the international league table.

Unicef said the situation facing young people in Britain is "expected to worsen" as a result of government policies, and it warns that "since 2010 the downgrading of youth policy and cuts to local government services are having a profound negative effect on young people".

Unicef says although the picture for British children may appear better than when the charity last compiled a league table – which put it at the bottom of a 21-country list in 2007 – their prospects are worsening once more as the cuts threaten to "sideline" a generation.

The country is placed 29th on further education – bottom of the list of developed nations in Unicef's report – 27th on teenage pregnancy, and on youth unemployment it is ranked 24th.

Read the rest here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/10/children-bleaker-future-co...