OPINION: Grand aims collide with practical reality

Steve was right to draw attention to the routine challenges of making links, building relationships, holding the line and managing exit at the end of the evening. We don't hear so much about this side of youth work because, from the outside, it looks chaotic, smacks of incompetence and does not resonate with current political expectations. But it is a home truth that must not be avoided.

I remember having a debate with a colleague who had just successfully run a programme about alcohol. He was singing the praises of a recent alcohol "trigger video": sit the young people down, let them watch snatches of the video, and then have a discussion about its implications and its meaning for them. At the time, I was working with a group of young people whose alcohol use was, to put it mildly, excessive. They rarely came into the youth club, but were usually just outside - drinking. The thought of them engaging with such a trigger video was inconceivable. My performance target was to encourage them to put their cans in the bin, rather than just lob them in the air.