Viewpoint - The youth worker's lot is a difficult one

So, what is "youth work"? And is it any good? Is it possible to lift the miasma of the much-vaunted 'youth work approach' to reveal the purposes, values, tasks, methods and skills that make up this form of professional intervention?

I have tried to do so in a slim volume published by The National Youth Agency called Good Youth Work. I had wanted to entitle the book Excellent Youth Work, but changed my mind for two reasons. First, I became tired of the over-use of the superlative used by public service policy wonks to talk up the ordinary in the hope that exhortation, as much as resources, would transform an under-funded, under-valued local service into world-class provision. Second, I take the view of psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim that if youth work is good enough to ensure young people's development, it should be replicated for all those who want and need it, preferably near to where they live.