Review highlights best practice to shape the future of youth work

A review of youth work policy and practice over the current parliament has set out a series of recommendations for how to reform services under a new government to better meet young people’s emerging support needs.

The rapid review by MPs Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Ben Bradley follows a call for evidence published by CYP Now at the start of the year, with responses from frontline youth work organisations and practitioners informing the recommendations on priority areas for the next parliament.

• Read the report: Moving Forward with Youth Work: An Agenda for Change

The MPs’ review charts trends in youth work provision and spending since a 2019 report by the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on youth affairs which highlighted the detrimental impact that £1bn of budget cuts had on local authority services in the previous decade.

Since then, there has been a “renewal of youth work qualifications and the first steps towards increased investment, from a capital-led Youth Investment Fund and bursaries for youth work training”, the MPs say in a new report titled Moving Forward with Youth Work.

‘Essential service’

Youth work’s status was enhanced further when it was deemed an “essential service” during the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and this was underpinned by the creation of the National Youth Guarantee – which gives a right for all young people to have access to regular weekly activities out of school, adventure and trips away from home and increased volunteering opportunities in their local area.

Despite a slight rise in spending on services for young people by councils in 2022/23 – and in youth work settings and staff employed – the report raises concerns about the challenging funding climate in local government and how this could undermine recent progress, whichever party forms the next government.

The MPs state: “As this parliament draws to a close and a new government is formed after the general election public spending will be held tight in a vice-like grip. There is no ‘quick fix’, rather we need to re-set how we engage, involve and empower young people which means making decisions viewed through the lens of their young lives. How we support and resource youth work will be pivotal.”

They have put forward three recommendations for change and set out in the report models of youth work that highlight some of the best aspects of the sector and how these could be further developed in the next five years.

Models of practice

Services and organisations that offer young people the chance to form relationships with a trusted adult – a youth practitioner with youth work training – are crucial for enhancing their wellbeing, the report states. This can be seen in centre-based approaches like Onside Youth Zones as well as detached youth work including rural areas like Young Somerset.

The report describes trusted relationships as “an understanding based not just on the unique way youth work delivers relational practice (voluntary engagement) and how this supports the collective impact of all stakeholders for shared outcomes, despite differing roles and activities across the age range”. All the models of practice championed in the report have trusted relationships at their core.

Place-based

A devolved funding model addresses the issue of youth work falling between the cracks of multiple government departments, the MPs say. This could be achieved by pooling funds and policy drivers from across multiple departments and distributed at a local authority area level with the convening capabilities of councils for an effective youth service offer to be organised and delivered, of which youth work provides a key element alongside voluntary organisations and community groups, and uniformed, sports and arts groups. For this to happen there needs to be:

• A national strategy for young people to support pooling government departmental budgets.

• Devolved responsibilities and funding to local authorities to secure effective youth services.

• A “re-energised” early help and prevention model that recognises the long-term benefits of investment in up-front support and how it can reduce spending on late interventions.

Commissioned services

Creating a service that better meets the needs of young people can be achieved through councils commissioning a community-based core youth work offer through a charity dedicated to that purpose. This, states the report, can be an established charity or single entity of a local youth partnership, who would manage a team of place-based qualified youth workers and core funded provision, building their capacity and widening the offer alongside other local providers. The partnerships would be made up of local voluntary and community organisations and key stakeholders including local authority children’s services officers.

“Overall, funding should be to secure targeted work with universal work included, building on the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, but not just in the holidays and with less emphasis on free school meals (FSM) to be inclusive of needs and not stigmatising,” the report states.

Council-led provision

The three-tier engagement approach used by Nottinghamshire County Council is highlighted for praise in the report. This allows young people to access additional support depending on their individual need and can be extended to include the wider youth sector.

“This approach creates an ideal opportunity to either create or utilise the council’s professionally qualified workforce to support the wider youth sector in regard to safeguarding, training and support, and in planning positive opportunities and outcomes for young people,” the report explains.

This way of working creates a “a neat referral pathway, enhancing what is available to young people in a communicated, organised, and safe way”, it adds.

Voluntary services

In Brighton, the youth offer is underpinned by voluntary and community organisations with effective youth voice and participation work embedded, which means that any area will have its ear to the ground for issues and opportunities that arise.

A service has been built around neighbourhood youth clubs offering more targeted provision, based in youth work principles. “It is the systemic impact of relationship-based practice with trusted adults in a way that shrinks the holes in the safety net for them,” the report states.

Young Futures

The MPs’ report calls for more funding to expand good multi-agency working that sees youth work delivered in a range of settings, from A&E departments to community hubs.

Approaches it cites as offering potential include the Sure Start for teenagers that will be piloted by the Centre for Young Lives and which connects youth work support with schools; the therapeutic neighbourhood-based model offered by charity Oasis which wraps support around community hubs, youth centres and academy trust schools; and a specific transition to adulthood service for 16-24 year olds, devised by Centrepoint, that brings together support across government departments accessible through a single front door.

School links

There is a move to greater links with schools and academy trusts, as anchor institutions in a local community where most young people are. Many young people won’t have experience of youth work. To overcome this, the MPs say “link youth workers” in secondary schools can build relationships by such activities as lunchtime wellbeing drop-ins, after school clubs and youth awards programmes.

“The link workers connect to community organisations to build their capacity, delivering regular out of school enrichment activities, volunteering and social action opportunities,” the report states.

“Where there are gaps, youth workers can carry out detached youth work to build relationships with young people, start a drop in…working with young people to develop centre-based provision in the area as an intrinsic part of the local youth offer.”

Role of the arts

Performing arts venue Roundhouse is cited as an organisation that has an in-house youth work team and outreach capability with the skills and facilities to engage young people in London directly.

“This provides a holistic package of support for young people in creative settings, in a youth-focused approach led by qualified youth workers and experienced artistic, technical and pastoral staff teams within a one-stop provision,” the report states. “This enables the voluntary engagement of young people participating in positive activities and receiving the support needed at key stages of transitions to adulthood.”

Role of sports

Football Beyond Borders delivers a long-term, targeted social and emotional learning intervention for vulnerable young people. Youth workers and practitioners are recruited from the communities they serve with lived experience that young people relate to who develop strong relationships with young people and key actors in their lives. They teach self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship skills and responsible decision making explicitly through a curriculum targeted towards 16- to 18-year-olds that schools put forward for the programme.

Report recommendations

• Under the next government there should be a minister with a portfolio focussed on young people. A cross-departmental committee would be chaired by the youth minister, with shared outcomes to read across government, research and practice readily understood by young people. An annual report would be presented to parliament for a scrutiny hearing by a select committee, with mechanisms for youth voice and representation at all levels of decision-making.

• With youth work seen as an essential service a national youth workforce strategy is needed. One that stimulates demand for, rather than simply supply of, youth workers with revenue funding devolved to secure a deeper and broader National Youth Guarantee. The strategy and guidance should include clear expectations for what sufficient youth provision is and the capacity to deliver locally, including the ratio of professional youth workers, trainees and volunteers.

• There needs to be a national system for evaluating the sufficiency, suitability and quality of youth work. This necessitates a coherent local youth offer that provides for a mosaic of activities and providers. To achieve this, local youth partnerships should be developed which incorporate young people in their design and decision making, alongside new light touch inspection arrangements and quality assurance.