Viewpoint - Still forced to think national, not local

Good youth work engages with the complexity of such issues. It offers development in social skills, which are increasingly the foundation for employability, and finds ways of responding to the changing interests of the young.

Such work requires high levels of skill including the ability to deal with situations "on the wing" as opportunities or challenges arise. Innovative national organisations such as Rathbone and Rainer continually reshape their services to respond to the needs of young people and young adults, especially the more disadvantaged or troubled.

But does the state help such work as effectively as it might? Recent visits to projects suggests not. There are still too many funding streams financing similar work that has to be rebadged to fit this year's priorities. Successful programmes, such as the Neighbourhood Support Fund, are allowed to run into the sand as central government loses interest and does not ensure a smooth handover to local funders. Local authorities do not prioritise the transition to adulthood and so fail to commission or provide relevant work. Connexions services find it inconvenient when a voluntary body, through imaginative street work, locates the supposed hard-to-reach unemployed who are unregistered. It doesn't look good for its NEET (not in employment, education or training) figures does it?