Opinion: Youth work is not really so bad in the UK

That, at least, is what we claim and what those at the other end of the Council of Europe's international reviews often feed back to us. Cyprus is the eleventh country to be reviewed and Slovakia follows shortly. The first review was conducted in 1997, in Finland, and has been followed by reviews of the Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Spain, Estonia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta and Norway. Each review has yielded at least one issue in our deliberations on youth policy in Europe, such as the preoccupation with educational qualifications, the limited provision of opportunities or the treatment of minorities.

As I was flying back from Cyprus, I started to think how the UK - as a whole, and within its constituent parts - might be perceived from the outside. I am sure that many observers would be quite envious about the resources allocated to young people, the competence of those who work with them, the evidence that, at least in part, informs that practice, and the dialogue that takes place. Elsewhere in Europe, the structures for youth policy development are constantly subject to political whim.