Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide a “local youth offer” for young people but it has not always been clear what that means in practice.
In September 2023, the government published updated guidance in an attempt to clear up confusion.
Under the strengthened guidance councils must ensure there are sufficient youth services in their area and that their youth offer is responsive to the needs of local young people.
It specifies the need for high-quality provision delivered by trained youth workers and to work in collaboration with local voluntary sector organisations.
Alongside the updated guidance, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport commissioned the National Youth Agency (NYA) to deliver a two-year programme of free “peer reviews” for local authorities to look at how they were meeting the statutory duty.
The reviews were designed to provide an “on-the-ground” assessment of how local authorities were doing and where youth provision could improve. The work builds on a toolkit launched by the NYA in 2023 to support local authorities to fulfill their statutory duty.
Peer review teams include NYA staff, representatives from another council and – crucially – at least one young reviewer recruited by the NYA.
Reviews are tailored to each authority and start with a self-assessment that helps identify the areas the council is most interested in exploring with the review team.
The review itself takes between three and four days and involves focus groups with local authority staff and key partners and visits to youth services.
Each visit concludes with a presentation on the team’s findings and this is followed by a written report that includes recommendations.
Five young people aged 16 to 19 were recruited as young reviewers who did the same training, participated in preparation meetings and reviewed documents alongside adults.
During reviews, the young reviewers develop a set of questions, facilitate interviews and focus groups with young people and share their findings with the rest of the team as well as contributing to the final presentation and recommendations in the report.
Their role is essential to the process, says NYA head of quality and standards Andy Lloyd, who oversees each review. “They give us a real sense of what a young person’s experience would be – they pick up on things that maybe we wouldn’t have done,” he says. “What we found is that young people open up if a session is being delivered by a young person as opposed to grown-ups going in and saying ‘What do you want from youth provision?’”
NYA carried out two pilot reviews in 2023 in partnership with the Local Government Association (LGA) and has done four full reviews to date. It will carry out a total of seven peer reviews by March 2025.
Lloyds says reviews to date have demonstrated a real enthusiasm and appetite to rebuild youth services, which have suffered from huge cuts in recent years.
“The point of the review is around the statutory guidance and I don’t think any local authority – if they’re honest – is meeting the duties fully,” says Lloyd. “I think that’s understandable given the reductions we’ve had in youth services over the years. Each of them is really looking to rebuild youth services as are a lot of councils.”
None of the areas visited so far had fully mapped youth provision or the needs of local young people and all would benefit from taking a more strategic approach.
Other common themes include shortages of both new and experienced youth workers that can make progression planning difficult.
Reviews to date found effective partnerships in each area with the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector delivering high levels of open-access provision.
However, funding to the voluntary and community sector tended to be short-term and this had an impact on quality and organisations’ ability to plan.
Most areas appear to have something of a divide between targeted youth services, often delivered by the local authority and open-access provision, which was more likely to be run by a partner organisation.
This made it harder for young people to move between more intensive support services and general youth work provision that could help prevent issues from escalating.
Reviews found local authorities were actively seeking the views of young people and had forums in place such as youth councils.
But this was still an area that could be strengthened through developing youth work participation plans to ensure all young people have their say in decision-making.
Digital youth work
Another area for development was digital youth work. The reviews found all local authorities visited would benefit from a better understanding of the opportunities presented by digital tech as well as the risks posed.
Lloyds says the revised guidance on the youth work duty has made things clearer and raised the profile of youth work alongside guidance on multi-agency working that makes it clear youth workers are a key part of the equation when it comes to safreguarding children and young people.
As part of the funding the NYA worked with the LGA to create two new national networks to support good practice including a lead member peer network for councillors with responsibility for youth services.
Meanwhile a peer network for lead youth officers and commissioners is designed to bring together senior staff responsible for developing a council’s youth offer.
The peer review programme is now closed but the NYA continues to offer local authorities the opportunity to commission service reviews by a team of experts including young people.
- Find out how to join the networks and about other resources by the NYA at www.nya.org.uk
Milton Keynes: Review was supportive throughout
Youth services in Milton Keynes were reviewed under the NYA’s peer review programme in February this year. The authority was keen to take part in the process, explains participation and engagement manager Richard Lee.
“We are very ambitious for the young people of the city and we want to make sure we are giving them the best services that we can,” he says. “We have a long history with the NYA and wanted to tap into that expertise to understand what we’re doing well, where we could improve and how well we know ourselves.”
Transparent process
The review team met the authority’s youth council and saw a wide range of services including targeted and open-access provision run by the council and local voluntary and community organisations.
Lee says the review was probing but also very supportive. “What we liked as a council is that the whole process was incredibly supportive throughout but was what we asked for in terms of providing some good challenge,” he says. “It was a very open and transparent process with regular communication and daily keep in touch meetings.”
Before they left Milton Keynes, the review team gave a presentation to share their key findings and this was followed by a full, written report.
“The youth council was seen as a real strength alongside the fact we as a council prioritise the voice of young people and their participation in local democracy,” says Lee.
The review team also praised the authority’s commitment to partnership work with the voluntary and community sector and its recently launched “safe practice mark” for youth services.
Areas for development included the need to increase the level of provision for young people especially when it came to open-access provision and detached youth work.
“We’re very good at listening to young people and their voice influencing decisions but one of the things fed back to us was that we also need to let young people know the impact they have had,” says Lee.
The authority was told it needed to develop a consistent definition of youth work and – as part of efforts to meet the statutory duty on youth services – needed to undertake a detailed needs assessment and mapping exercise to help shape the local youth offer.
Lee says the authority has already made changes designed to strengthen youth work in Milton Keynes including bringing youth work forums under the wider umbrella of its Children and Young People’s Alliance to strengthen collaboration and information sharing.
“We recognise that we’re stronger together so having one collective group has been welcomed with open arms,” says Lee.
Developing youth strategy
The authority is currently working towards developing a three-year youth strategy based on the review’s recommendations. It will stage its first youth participation summit this month.
The council’s plan for 2024/25 includes work to develop extra youth support and activities and the authority is also exploring turning the safe practice mark into a quality assurance mark.
Lee says it was important the review team included young people. “The feedback we got from them was very enlightening to the point where our director of children’s services personally wrote to the young assessors to thank them for their input and their time, which says it all,” he says.
Being a young reviewer has boosted my skills
Charlie McCarthy (pictured), 17, from Greater London, is one of the NYA’s young reviewers. He was told about the role by a mentor from the London Borough of Hillingdon’s Aims mentoring scheme, who also helped him complete the application.
He took part in the review of youth services in Milton Keynes where he was really impressed with the authority’s youth council.
“It was great to see how ambitious the youth council is and their commitment to making things better for the young people of Milton Keynes,” he says.
In his review feedback Charlie recommended Milton Keynes Council ensure they report back to the youth council on changes made from their input.
Charlie also identified that young people were keen to see more localised youth provision, especially in areas where there was a risk of youth violence.
He says being a young reviewer has been a positive experience and has enabled him to visit new places and meet young people from other areas.
“It’s important young people are part of the reviews as it means young people in those council areas are more open and receptive to speaking about the provision they engage with,” he says.
“I have had similar experiences to the young people I am speaking with and that enables them to share their experiences more freely than with adults.”
He says the role has also helped with his own personal development and skills including time-keeping, money management and confidence.
