NYA needs to 'reconnect' with youth sector, says new interim chief

Paul Miller, the NYA trustee appointed this week as interim chief executive, said that the youth sector had changed over the last five years and that the organisation had not been quick enough to react.

In recent years, youth workers have taken on more responsibility at a younger age as well as worked in different roles, including working alongside social workers in supporting families with complex needs as well as emerging youth work roles within the health sector.

"Perhaps we need to understand that a little better," he said of the changing nature of youth work roles.

He added: "We might have got a little bit staid, a little bit complacent, and that’s not through any fault of Fiona Blacke [the organisation's previous chief executive]. We might need to reconnect.”

The NYA is now on the hunt for a permanent chief to replace Blacke who retired in March for health reasons. The search for her successor is expected to take up to six months.

Miller has ruled himself out of taking the post permanently, as has Jon Boagey, the NYA’s deputy chief executive who was acting chief executive until Miller’s appointment.

Of the recruitment process, Miller said: "I’m hoping whoever comes in brings some wider thinking… we might have unintentionally settled down and been too comfortable in what we are doing.

“We want to get the right chief executive to take us on the next part of this journey. It is likely it could be three months, but it could be four or five months. I would be really pleased if we got another Fiona and I’m confident that we will follow the principles that she has laid out for us.”

Miller, who is a consultant at management consultancy WCL and a former assistant chief executive at Oxfordshire County Council, says he has taken on the interim role as he wants to ensure the NYA maintains its current lobbying and support work as well as its partnerships with O2, Barclays and the National Citizen Service.