Big interview: A future for London's youth - Chris Heaume, chief executive, Central London Connexions

He owes his feeling of ease around young people to a career in youth work that began as a volunteer in a club in his native Guernsey when he was 14.

But while Guernsey provided his first taste of youth work, he has spent all of his two-decade career in London.

Although Heaume disliked the city at first, he was also gripped by its vibrancy and diversity, qualities that led him to train as a youth worker in the capital.

Since then, his varied career has seen him lurking among dustbins on housing estates as a detached youth worker, running school-based youth centres and managing a voluntary-aided club in West Ham. His experience has allowed him to witness how life for young Londoners - and the provision for them - has changed, changes that both encourage and frustrate him.